identifying with the enemy

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>I think her position was "weird" from the point of view of material 
>self-interest, but that doesn't mean I think it's weird or 
>irrational in the sense you're taking it, nor do I think that people 
>generally run their lives on material self-interest. A 
>psychoanalyst, amateur or professional, assumes that behavior that 
>looks weird on the surface makes a lot of sense when you look at the 
>personal history behind it.
>
>Doug

First of all, understanding material self-interest is no simple 
matter.  Even here, I mean among a bunch of avowed leftists, we had a 
debate on whether racism is in the interest of white workers.  To 
understand that racism is against the interest of not just workers of 
color but also white workers as well, one must have a conviction 
(backed up by theory) that (A) white workers, too, are part of the 
working class & thus have surplus value extracted from their labor 
power by capital; and that (B) the working class have a collective 
self-interest.  Neither A nor B is self-evident on the basis of 
appearances (as opposed to a theoretical understanding) of 
capitalism.  So, it is no wonder if a bartender in Toronto, who is 
not employed by Bill Gates & thus is not directly subordinated to 
him, thinks that she has nothing against him.  As far as she is 
concerned, men like Bill Gates might give her bigger tips than Carrol 
Cox or Doug Henwood!

Yoshie