Power

topp8564 at mail.usyd.edu.au topp8564 at mail.usyd.edu.au
Wed Dec 4 16:19:39 PST 2002


On 5/12/2002 4:07 AM, "lbo-talk-digest" <owner-lbo-talk-digest at lists.panix.com> wrote:


> No! Your objection is the same as if someone shouold object that quantum
> mechanics do not teach us how to plub in a lamp or that geology does not
> show us the route to Grandma's house. Social analysis can no more give
> us any direct informatin about personal relations than chemistry can
> give us direct information about the amount of sugar to add to a
> cornbread batter. Do you want one theory to explain everything?
>
> Carrol

This is a horribly strained set of analogies (why should something work the same way in geology and sociology?), and a unwarranted and agressive rhetorical question. At any rate, this kind of argumentation is an amusing sport and can be played either way: Attempting to understand social forces without understanding the specificity of that upon which such forces act is like trying to understand geology without bothering to look at the rocks.

I was just rather shocked that you should react to the idea that love involves social relations of power by quipping that social relations are impersonal. In my view, it takes a concerted effort to render relations impersonal and such an effort only really changes what it is to be a person in such circumstances. (In my mind right now is the Stanford Prison Experiment.)

Thiago Oppermann

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