Deleuze & Guattari, Zizek on Arendt (More from Brennan)

[joanna bujes]

At 11:15 PM 01/26/2003 -0500, Gar wrote:
>I don't believe I said that efficiency is the primary object. The
>coordinator class is a matter of keeping control, not of efficiency.
>Imagine an owner eliminating managers from a privately owned
>corporation. Perhaps he (it probably would be a "he" - patriarchy is
>still alive and well) would form it into self managing units; they would
>get the same percent of the profit that went into wages previously plus
>a portion of the money that formerly went to the managers. The workers
>could divide among themselves as the wished, rearrange their tasks, hire
>and fire. Obviously the contract would have to be more detailed than
>this so that both owner and worker came out better than in the old the
>system. It could be done.
>
>But there is one hell of a long term problem from the owner point of
>view. Probably sooner, rather than later, the workers would start to
>think "what the hell do we need the owner for? What the hell does he do
>for his share of the profits?" In fact Marx and Engels expected this to
>happen. It was the existence of the Coordinator class that prevented it.
>Given the genius of M&E it is a great pity they missed it. Because they
>might have come up with a solution, if they had spotted the problem. But
>they misdefined the middle class and expected it to simply be absorbed
>into the working class.

I don't see any disagreement...as for the days of the "managerial" 
class...I think they're numbered...the pie is getting smaller, smaller. 
Let's not forget the ultimate "moral" of "Schindler's List" (which to my 
mind was not about the past, but about the future): you have a choice 1) 
working for an insane fascist or 2) working for a "rational" fascist. Once 
we feel "lucky" to work for benevolent fascists, it's all downhill from 
there...we'll happily manage ourselves. They'll just replace the managers 
with armed guards and barbed wire fences. Wait, that won't work cause there 
won't be a consumer society left!!!

Hey, I know! Let's have a revolution instead!

Sorry. I'm spacing. Day 5 of not smoking. (I know, I know, we've been here 
before.) Well, what the hell!

Joanna