> All the objective Marxist taxonomy you want to throw at the problem
> doesn't amount to shit as long as people think they're not working
> class.
>
>
Ted Winslow observed:
Moreover, Marx's taxonomy is based on a particular theory of the
development of human subjectivity. In that theory, domination within
relations of production is positively developmental of rational self-
consciousness, of what A.N. Whitehead calls "noble discontent." This
is discontent rooted in self-conscious awareness of the "good" and of
the means required to make our actual lives better by making them
approximate more to the good. If domination within capitalist
relations isn't necessarily productive of noble discontent in this
sense (if, say, it proves compatible with the kind of discontent
expressed by Rapture Christianity), Marx's theory needs amending
because it's inconsistent with the facts.
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I think Fromm picked this up and made an important addition to Marx's take on the psychology of the dominant social relation. Here's a nice summary:
His initial book, and likely his most influential work, was called Escape From Freedom, published near the beginning of World War II. In it he described freedom as the greatest problem for most individuals. With freedom, according to Fromm, comes an overwhelming sense of aloneness and an inability to exert individual power. He argued that we use several different techniques to alleviate the anxiety associated with our perception of freedom, including automaton, conformity, authoritarianism, destructiveness, and individuation.
The most common of these is automaton conformity. Fromm argued that with the anxiety associated with our inability to express power and our fear of aloneness, we conform ourselves to a larger society. By acting like everyone else, holding the same values, purchasing the same products, and believing in the same morals, we gain a sense of power. This power of the masses assists us in not feeling alone and helpless. Unfortunately, according to Fromm, it also removes our individuality and prevents us from truly being ourselves. http://allpsych.com/personalitysynopsis/fromm.html
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Regards, Mike B)
****************************************************************** Time would pass, old empires would fall and new ones take their place, the relations of classes had to change, before I discovered that it is not quality of goods and utility that matter, but movement; not where you are or what you have, but where you come from, where you are going and the rate at which you are getting there. C.L.R. James, BEYOND A BOUNDARY (1963), 116-117.
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