> At 09:31 PM 1/24/02 +0800, Eric Franz Leher wrote:
> > Technology
> >is _supposed_ to bring freedom from labour (didn't Marx say this?) Of
> >course under capitalist social relations it can't do that.
>
>
kelley <kwalker2 at gte.net>:
> not really. marx thought that what distinguished us _as_ humans was that we
> labored, collectively and cooperatively, in order to live. the essence of
> what it means to be human is work: "What [individuals]...are coincides with
> their production, both with _what_ they produce and with _how_ they
> produce. The nature of individuals thus depends on the material conditions
> determining their production." (The German Ideology)
>
Okay, I'm sure you know more about this than me, but let me clarify what I meant. I didn't mean labour in this sort of general sense - I suppose I should have said _alienated_ labour. Marx may have thought the essense of being human is work, but surely he also thought the work performed under capitalism was _not_ a proper expression of the human essence. Is it (or isn't it) true that he thought we had to be freed from shit work, and that tech was a necessary means to this end - but it couldn't work out like that under capitalism?
Corrections please. Sorry for it being comic-book Marx time, but you learn from your mistakes.
Eric