Sociology and Explanations (Re: Hitchens responds to critics

[Miles Jackson]

On Mon, 1 Oct 2001, Doug Henwood wrote:

> kelley wrote:
>
> >does anyone psychoanalyze the masterminds of our war machine?
>
> I don't know, but someone should. Why not?
>
> Doug
>

Any psychoanalysis here is neither necessary nor sufficient as an
analysis of the U. S. war machine.  Any psychological processes
(e.g., sublimination) that a Freudian might posit here can only
have real social and material effects if there
is a complex network of technology, political relations, and
economic arrangements that exists above and beyond any one
person's unconscious conflicts and wishes.

I think it's a lot more productive to look at how social relations
produce a society with a war machine and the kind of people who can
"mastermind" the machine.

Which reminds me--whatever happened to kenneth m?

Miles