Regarding the current exchange on the idea of the body as capital:
I wrote:
> > "My body," he replied, "My body is my capital."
> >
> > So, there you go. What untold fortune he was going to squeeze out of his
> > body, I do not know.
Someone else wrote:
>This is standard-issue libertarian (fundamentalist liberal) dogma on the Net.
Leo wrote:
>May be. But it is also classic John Locke. The only question is why those of
>us running around with our bodies as our only capital accept such tripe.
For me, the locus classicus of the body as a form of capital is "Robinson Crusoe."
Remember? Robinson Crusoe goes out to seek his fortune but the vessel of his "will" is smashed and he winds up on a desert island where he reconstructs his life (with the aid of the slave Friday). He escapes from the island at the end and providentially winds up a rich man. Why? Because all the time he survived on the island, one of his slave plantations was making money for him...which, by the end of the narrative, we are convinced "he deserved" because of his travails and spiritual regeneration.
It's a neat trick, that ending. And the book weaves together perfectly the various lights and shadows of the self-made capitalist/imperialist individual. The man alone (but not really--as he is already a social man with technical knowledge and skills); on the "desert" island (but not really--as it has water and food and the stuff for shelter); winning by his civilized benevolence the help of Friday, who chooses rightly between civilization/exploitation and savagery/cannibalism; and finally managing to come "morally" into his own profits from his colonies.
If you do accept Robinson as one of the founding myths of capitalism, it is interesting to consider its most modern reflection: "The Shawshank Redemption" in which the goal is for Robinson/Friday to escape TO the desert island--from a society which is steeped in corruption and ultimately unredeemable. Fascinating to me when the founding myths get turned on their heads! But note the same logic operates: because the main character (an investment banker) is wrongly imprisoned, sodomized, exploited, and so forth, he is MORALLY entitled to embezzle all the money earned by his fellow prisoners in order to eek out a peaceful and innocent existence in the end.
Finally, I'd like to say that anyone who thinks that their body is their capital has absolutely no understanding about what the word capital means.
Joanna Bujes
P.S. There was recently some movie with Tom Hanks that was a Robinson-like epic. Did anyone on this mailing list see it? I'm curious what kind of spin it was on the basic myth.