[lbo-talk] Narmada Dam (was Arundhati Roy etc.)

[John Thornton]

Sean Andrews wrote:
> On 4/1/07, John Thornton <jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>   
>> Rheumatic (Rheumatoid) Arthritis is a genetic disease. Grinding wheat
>> does not cause it.
>>     
>
> I think Carrol is talking, generally, about repetitive stress injuries
> under the dated term "rheumatism."  The term might be wrong but
> quibbling over it doesn't make the condition he speaks of any less so,
> particularly when there is much evidence that there is a real
> resurgence the labor regime which thrives on the kind of absolute and
> relative extraction of surplus value that leads pretty directly to
> this kind of physical condition for the workers involved.  But maybe
> you're just helping Carrol get his terminology right in which case we
> might call it the predictable result of, following Lipietz, "Bloody
> Taylorization."
>
> s

Getting the terminology right is all I was doing. I am aware of the 
human toll repetitive motions cause and how mind-numbing such labor can be.

I just dislike misuse of the term rheumatism probably because my wife 
has it. My wife's mother died from Rheumatoid arthritis but my wife's 
condition is nowhere as severe. Her sister however is in bad shape and 
will probably not make 65 years of age since she responds very poorly to 
even the latest treatments. It is an autoimmune disorder that affects 
connective tissue but also effects other systems. My wife's mother died 
of neuropathy from the arthritis. Her nerves died starting with the 
lower extremities until it progressed high enough to effect her 
breathing. It's a nasty crippling disease that sounds more benign than 
it is partly because people associate rheumatism with nothing more than 
stiff sore joints caused by age or repeated motions. My wife's sister is 
"more disabled", if I can use such a squishy term, from Rheumatoid 
arthritis than a friend of mine with MS is.

John Thornton