BK on Identity

Dennis Breslin dbreslin at ctol.net
Fri Mar 2 13:56:53 PST 2001


JC Helary wrote:
>
> there was a mention of 'psychological' benefits comming with this vertical
> separation. i wonder what is meant here. what kind of benefits are associated
> to hate, violence, sexual abuse ? i am no psy but i have the feeling the
> psychological benefits refered to here are just a perverse way of satifying
> frustrated desires associated with the capitalist division of labor.
> everything that can't be satisfied under class exploitation is converted into
> desire to oppress and thus the necessity to create an oppressed ???
>
> jc helary

Hmmm...but are those who reap the riches of a capitalist division of labor, who often sing with glee over their fame, fortune, and glory, and positively revel in their privilege -- and who think themselves marvelous -- are these expressing a perverse satisfaction of frustrated desires associated with the cap div. of labor? Where's the frustration? They own the damned thing.

Put another way, domination, oppression, coercion can be rational acts. Which is to say capitalism is rational. Which is to say that the capitalist organization of economic production and exchange is done in such a way as to produce a surplus in such a way so that capitalists appropriate most of the good stuff for themselves. Which is_not_ to say it is just, ethical, or a particularly pleasant to treat people. The understanding about domination - violence - has long been imprisoned in a cell of irrationality. Clearly there are irrational consequences of rational action. After long fighting the battle against the evil empire of rational choice I got to admit that the prevalence of class struggle in human history makes a lot of sense as relatively rational actions of some humans pursuing their gains typically at the expense of everyone else.

Dennis Breslin



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