----- Original Message ----- From: "Miles Jackson" <cqmv at pdx.edu>
Well, that's my point: this ideology is enforced formally in social institutions such as the courts. --I'm not making a moral argument here; I'm just pointing out that the trope of personal responsibility justifies social inequalities. Note that it's a big jump from that observation to some moral dictum (e.g., "people shouldn't be held responsible for their behavior").
Miles
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What's morality got to do with it? There's no non-circular evidence/justification for declaring that responsibility is an irreducibly moral term. And there's no evidence, nor "under" capitalism could there be, that operationalizing the convention that "people shouldn't be held responsible for the behavior" would get rid of social inequalities.
We simply do not know whether socialism would facilitate getting rid of the notion of responsibility and that doing so would significantly eliminate inequalities.
Beginning evasive maneuverings of the overposting police,
Ian