[lbo-talk] more on the psychology of money

[andie nachgeborenen]

All we would know at the end of the
> investigation would be Gee
> Whiz, CApitalists act like Capitalists. Who wudda
> guessed it.
> 
>

So, my interpretation of Carrol's view was right:
everyone is nothing but a bearer of class relations,
and these are stripped of all psychological content.
Of course this makes it a bit mysterious what workers
don't act the way workers predict the they should (who
wudda thunk it, they don't act like workers! But we
don't let details get in the way), but details
shouldn't bother us. It also leaves it mysterious why
Marx bothered to write, e.g., sharply social
psychological studies like the 18th Brumiaire, or why
Marxist  historians like E.P. Thompson spent years and
effort wasting their time with foolishness like
biographies of William Morris, John Milton, and the
like, or even with studies that looked into the
psychological impact of religion on the working class,
like The Making of The English Working Class -- but
they hadn't the advantage of Carrol's insight into the
fact that mental processes are historical fifth
wheels. I have been, like Carroll, weeding my
librarry. I now have a guide to be even more ruthless
and commit to the flames any work that is not
austerely structural. Maybe I can keep the literature
for amusement, but not for insight.




       
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