----- Original Message ----- From: "Carrol Cox" <cbcox at ilstu.edu> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2002 5:12 PM Subject: Re: Robert Wade
>
>
> Ian Murray wrote:
> >
> >
> > Hasn't something already gone awry if positioning among
participants
> > has become a competitive zero-sum game?
> >
>
> I'm working on a longer response, but quickly, (1) Something has
always
> already gone awry and always will have -- that's what I mean by the
> weather we work in, and (2) "Competitive zero-sum game" is
inaccurate,
> or at leas need not be accurate: the "game" can be played in such a
away
> as to keep the "losers" in it. Difficult. Almost impossible. But
that's
> what capitalism does to us. I'll let you have fun playing with
> reflexivity on that.
>
> Carrol
============== Capitalism is a curious admixture of negative-sum, zero-sum and positive-sum "games". See Adam Przeworski and Michael Burawoy on that one as to why workers consent to the system. Anyway, we were talking about intellectual disputes and communicational dynamics.
Ian