Jon wrote:
> It is because we die as individuals that we fear death -- the obliteration of the (individual) self is what one's self (using the word in the sense it is used in ordinary language) is constantly trying to stave off, by doing the biological stuff of eating, breathing, fighting off attackers, engendering offspring, etc.
and
> Am just now re-reading Cleaver's _Reading Capital Politically_, and appreciating his point that the imposition of the commodity-form on workers' lives, so that they have to buy (nearly) everything they need and want, is key to the establishment of the capitalist system -- i.e., converting ordinary folks into "workers" in the capitalist system.
I think it is important to realize that the imposition of a "consumer" mindset is facilitated by people who become consumers in order to "stave off" the knowledge that there is "no-self." Capitalism has willing partners in all those people who wish to maintain a solid sense of self in the face of ever-changing reality. If you cannot get people to resist false notions of self, it becomes harder to challenge capitalism which provides comfort to these illusions.
Also, having adopted a "consumer" identity, we increase separateness, thereby erecting a stumbling block to creating a cohesive class consciousness.
When you challenge people's consumer mindset, you challenge one of the pillars that prop up their sense of self. To me it makes sense to attack both the pillar of consumer identity as well as the false notions of self it supports.
As someone posted at the beginning of this thread, the Left failed to follow its own logic/wisdom to its conclusion about human beings. In this way the left has hamstrung itself and crippled its efforts to bring about change on a large scale.
Brian Dauth Queer Buddhist Resister