[lbo-talk] more on the psychology of money

[andie nachgeborenen]

"Man does not make his own history, nor does he do so
as he pleases." -- Carrol Marx. "Marx did not go fat
enough: We are _nothing but_ bearers of social
relations. Man is a semblance generated by power."
Miles Foucault. "And these social relations are
themselves constituted without reference to any
so-called psychological characteristics of the
biological beings whom they animate." The illusion of
agency is a mere effect of the operation of the
dominant state ideological apparatus. -- Carrol
Althusser.

--- Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:

> 
> 
> Doug Henwood wrote:
> > 
> >
> > Schwarzman's need for more is shaped by American
> capitalism, for
> > sure, but his need for more - every deal
> Blackstone has done has
> > affected the lives of many thousands of people -
> shapes the world we
> > live in too.
> 
> We simply do not know, and I think cannot know, what
> shapes
> "Schwarzman's need for more." Perhaps it is the same
> 'drive' that shapes
> Bonds's need to hit a few more homeruns to  surpass
> Aaron's record. That
> record will not give Bonds any more money but merely
> put his name in the
> record books. Perhaps Schwarzman cares not at all
> for the money _as
> money_ but only as a way of keeping score. Or
> perhaps he was abused as a
> child and is trying to prove something to his late
> (?) father or
> grandfather. Who knows! We do know that a capitalist
> firm tends to
> shrink if it does not grow. We do know that it is
> rather pointless for
> Capitalist John to bother to go to the office unless
> he tries to expand
> profits. We know an awful lot about the social
> relations in which
> Schwarzman is enmeshed, but you are really kidding
> yourself if you think
> you know anything at all about his psychology.
> Perhaps his therapist
> does, if he has a therapist. Perhaps his wife does.
> And perhaps not.
> 
> If you think this is evidence of the importance of
> psychology to
> understanding social relations, you are mistaken. If
> this is evidence
> for anything it is evidence that psychology can't
> help understand social
> relations.
> 
> Carrol
> 
> ___________________________________
>
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
> 



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