[lbo-talk] Re: light of my life, maybe not the fire of my loins

[Michael Dawson]

Commodity fetishism must be one of the top 3 most over-rated and misused
Marxist concepts.  The coiner of the phrase used it only to point out that
you need to look behind the act of exchange to know how this kind of society
works.  In the past 50 years, however, an endless stream of hack poseurs has
morphed the concept into some kind of super abstract elitist club for
bashing everybody who likes a good or service.  What a stupid waste of time.

-----Original Message-----
From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
On Behalf Of Brian Charles Dauth
Sent: Saturday, September 18, 2004 3:03 PM
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
Subject: [lbo-talk] Re: light of my life, maybe not the fire of my loins

Dear List:

Wojtek writes:


>  All I was arguing was that not everything can be reduced to sexual
rituals of one kind of another - there is life after sex, after all.  I
tried to point out the non-sexual dimensions of the debate.

But how is selecting the right tool for sexual expression commodity
fetishism?  You assert that commodity fetishism is involved, but do not
demonstrate how this is so.  (Unless the purchase of anything involves
commodity fetishism).

I can see how collecting Jordan sneakers or buying ever bigger SUV's is
commodity fetishism, but I cannot flog someone without a flogger.  I buy one
that works for me and that is it.  If I were to collect floggers simply in
order to have them, then that would be commodity fetishism.  But purchasing
the tools needed for the manifestation of sexual orientation is not
commodity fetishism.  It is merely common sense.