[lbo-talk] Re: cynicism, opportunism and fear (was lefties, fulfillment)

Etienne tim_boetie at fastmail.fm
Tue Jan 25 05:46:24 PST 2005


On Mon, 24 Jan 2005 20:14:56 -0800, "Tom Walker" <timework at telus.net> said:
> Gee, Jon, I was under the impression this was a rather casual talk group
> and not a peer-reviewed journal. I was also under the impression that a
> few anecdotal examples, insubstantial as it was, was actually a bit
> more substantial in the way of evidence than had been presented to
> refute the tiny bit of Virno that I had presented. If I was confident
> that a major research effort on my part would be repaid with careful
> attention by a considerable number of list subscribers, I would have no

Something that might be a stumbling block for such a research effort is figuring out what would _count_ as evidence for Virno's thesis. I think this is why anecdotes are brought up quite often in this kind of discussion - the immaterialisation of labour is a qualitative, not a quantitative change. So pointing to numbers won't prove anything either way; the fact that there are more truck drivers than computer programmers is irrelevant if the computer programmers' work is changing supply chains in such a way that the truck drivers' conditions of work are being radically altered (as the anecdotal evidence of a truck driver I used to share a house with suggests).

I'm broadly sympathetic to the Hardt and Negri, Virno, etc claims about immaterial labour, but I would like to see some stronger empirical evidence for them. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what sort of empirical evidence we should be looking for? --

"There are very few members of the establishment press

who will defend the idea that things like aggressive

flatulence, forced feedings of swill, or even a barely-

muted hostility on the part of the candidate would

justify any kind of drastic retaliation by a professional

journalist - and certainly nothing so drastic as to

cause the Democratic front-runner to cut short a major

speech because some dangerous freak was clawing at his

legs and screaming for more gin."

-- Hunter S. Thompson Tim http://www.huh.34sp.com/



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list