[lbo-talk] Re: wotsit madder

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Sat Mar 6 15:17:47 PST 2004


Carrol Cox wrote:


>we have to use a definition of
>"unhealthy" which implies the subject to be unhappy

Why? Psychopaths don't feel unhappy, do they? The quickie definition of sociopathic personality disorder (the current term):


>[n] a personality disorder characterized by amorality and lack of
>affect; capable of violent acts without guilt feelings
>(`psychopathic personality' was once widely used but was superseded
>by `sociopathic personality' to indicate the social aspects of the
>disorder; `antisocial personality disorder' is currently the
>preferred term)

Of course in the literal sense high-end capitalists aren't sociopaths. They don't commit crimes in the literal sense, and don't demonstrate a pathological lack of affect. But the beauty of capitalist society is that they're insulated by many layers from the consquences of their decisions; Volcker could push interest rates into the teens without having to watch Latin American babies starve because of his action.

Years ago at a Rethinking Marxism conference, Joel Kovel did a nice presentation on the "capitalist ego" - a voracious beast with a hunger to amass, consume, and domiante, but in a socially acceptable way.

Doug



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