Absolute defeatism and nihilism. Others are impossible to know. No theory, even general and probabilistic will enable us to predict their behavior in aggregate.
The mind is a mystery and a maze. I.e., You Give Up. (This is completely inconsistent with your sign-on to my psychological analysis of the subjective dimensions of class a little while go, but who cares about consistency. Hobgoblin of small minds.) This explains a lot about your attitude. I only the other hand find psychology necessary to explain how classes work, why class analysis is statistically useful, why the oppressed do not flock to the banners of their would-be liberators but often embrace their oppression. These are useful things to know. Maybe your criterion is that a psychology is only useful if it has successful results. So much for historical materialism then. I really don't know what's got into you Carrol, first Miles and then you are signed on the Smart People Who Believe Stupid and Insane Things Club.
--- Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
>
>
> andie nachgeborenen wrote:
> >
> > This anti-psychologism baffles me.
>
> It isn't anti-psychologism; it is opposed to a
> mystical and impossible
> use of psychology.
>
> Do a psychological analysis which will allow me to
> post to the
> non-active members of BNCPJ (most of them strangers
> to me; all of them
> strangers to you) that will increase attendance at
> BNCPJ meetings. It
> must not include any banal truisms (like don't call
> them wimps; don't
> threaten to rape them). I have _never_ seen a
> political document of any
> sort that revealed any new knowledge through the use
> of psychology.
>
> In others words, show us. Use it to accomplish
> something political.
>
> Carrol
>
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