[lbo-talk] Nietzsche

[Miles Jackson]

joanna wrote:
> Miles Jackson wrote:
>
>   
>> The same argument can be applied to any psychological characteristic: 
>> for a person to fulfill a psychological impulse, there must be social 
>> conditions that enable that impulse.  Even if the person or like-minded 
>> people build social conditions that help them all fulfill their impulse, 
>> it is still the social conditions that they have built that must be 
>> analyzed--not just the psychological impulse that accompanied the change 
>> in social conditions!
>>
>>     
> Having said that though, we need to say something about a system that 
> renders most people "mentally ill." We must conclude that if most of the 
> people in this country have to be drunk, high, or on some kind of 
> prescribed psychoactive drug, this must be because social survival 
> depends on actions that drive them mad and that are counter to some 
> unexamined, basic human needs for trust, empathy, mutual support, and 
> even, yes, responsibility. etc.
>
> Joanna
>   
Yes, I agree, it's important to recognize and analyze the pernicious 
psychological effects of our capitalist society.  But that's distinct 
from the task of analyzing social structure.

Miles