[lbo-talk] crises kill

Eric rayrena at realtime.net
Wed Feb 27 10:51:13 PST 2008



>On Feb 26, 2008, at 5:26 PM, Voyou wrote:
>
>> In large part this
>> is a consequence of students' ambiguous structural position, stranded
>> between their old role as subjects of disciplinary institutions and
>> their new status as consumers of services.
>
>Man, whatever happened to the pleasures of fucking and getting high
>without the parents watching, and maybe reading some good books too?

I think there's too much of a tendency to think of young people as consumers -- to focus on their iPods and cell phones -- and not appreciate the way that work structures their lives. Whereas even so recent as 20 years ago, when I started college, it was thought of as a suspension of "real life" when most people didn't have to work or really even think about their futures. Today, neoliberal students have to work their way through college -- not all, of course, but many more than in the past -- and are under constant pressure to make themselves the entrepreneurial subjects the state demands them to be.

I keep thinking of this as related to parenting. If the father in the disciplinary society was controlling and tyrannical, the neoliberal parent is understanding and helpful. Instead of forcing the will of capital on kids as the fordist father did, the neoliberal parent blocks lines of flight, through more caring mechanisms: empowering kids to explore themselves, encouraging them to be questioning and activist, and sending them to punk-rock camps.



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