[lbo-talk] barbaric (was Marxism and religion)

[Tayssir John Gabbour]

On 3/4/07, joanna <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
> But there's also a real issue that there are circumstances in which
> choice is a lie.
>
> -- Right now in Oakland, parents are supposed to "shop" for their
> children's schools. The idea here is that everyone winds up getting what
> they want/need, but the reality is that certain schools will not accept
> special needs or kids of color and also that a lot of parents are in no
> condition to judge which school their kids should attend ...because they
> [...]
> The more primitive idea, that every kid is entitled to a good
> education, is rejected as inferior to the shopping experience.

Hmm, interesting... in trying to translate this into my personal
observations, I do find that:

   * We normally produce in teams (corporate communes), but are

     supposed to consume individually.

   * We typically shop in an environment under someone else's control,

     and even the "choice" is generally of their own choosing.

In this way, the customers may outnumber the store's crew, but only
one organizes as a team and communicates, while the other is atomized.
The store's organization can be very brittle, a primitive form of
top-down cooperation, but nevertheless is leagues ahead of what the
customers are up to.

Tayssir