"Anarchy Reigns in Social Production" re: unions

Bradford DeLong jbdelong at uclink.berkeley.edu
Fri Aug 16 17:30:05 PDT 2002



>Brian O. Sheppard x349393 :
>> The question "Will there be airplanes?" can't be answered
>> definitively with "yes" or "no." Airplanes as they exist now are
>> predicated upon different constellations of social relations that
>> may or may not be coercive, authoritarian, unjust, etc. If
>> airplanes are completely dependent upon social coercion to
>> exist - that is, if fate is so merciless that airplanes may only
>> exist if people are oppressed in some manner - then I think
>> people, especially those bearing the brunt of whatever coercion
>> is involved, should be able to decide if they want to have any
>> part in making them. If they don't, then the airplanes won't
>> get made. Theorists shouldn't decide it in advance of the actual
>> society; the decision should be a particpatory one made by those
> > most affected by the production and its effects.

Put me, for one, down on the side of the belief that the *lack* of airplanes and ocean liners is coercive. I don't want to have to paddle across the Pacific in a canoe...

Brad DeLong



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