- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Carrol Cox" <cbcox at ilstu.edu>
>>
>>What we want to do is stop raping and murdering. And we can certainly
>>condemn the actions without making moral judgments of the actors. I
>>don't see what's gained.
=================
>To condemn an action is to make a moral judgement.
Yes, but isn't Carrol making a distinction here between moral judgements? A moral judgement made about the action doesn't neccessarily have to be accompanied by a moral judgement about the actor, does it?
>You can't make judgments regarding an abstraction without pointing to >the
>responsibility of the agents that intend it's perpetuation and
>applicability.
Does that responsibility and intention have to be willed out of a positive desire towards perpetuation of the abstraction? Workers and capitalists keep capitalism going, to the greater benefit of the capitalists, of course.
But it's not necessary that these people keep it going because they like it or they find it self-evident to keep doing so. They could do it out of what they see as necessary self-preservation (Marx described something like this about the petit bourgeois, didn't he?) or even "habit" (for want of a better word). This doesn't mean that the poor capitalists must be absolutely absolved from what they do, but neither does it mean that they must absolutely be responsible for the abstraction. That latter sort of thinking promotes, I think, a belief that eliminating capitalism must involve killing or otherwise harming people who are capitalists, rather than "taking their power away from them" (crudely put, but I can't think of a more subtle formulation).
>>We recently heard the tragic news that Alec Ramsdell died of a >heroin
>>overdose, the news that depressed me terribly. He was just 31. A
>>promising musician and poet, well loved by his family and friends. Whom
>>are we to blame?
>>--
>>Yoshie
>>
===================
>Capitalism, of course.
>Ian
Har-de-har. Oh you kidder you.
Welcome back, Ian. I thought things would get too boring for you on the Outside.
Todd
_________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail