[lbo-talk] crises kill

[Ben Jackson]

> >On Feb 27, 2008, at 1:51 PM, Eric wrote:
> >
> >  > 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.

I'm trying to parse out what exactly the reasoning is here.  Can you
elaborate on how you think encouraging kids to be questioning, and to
explore themselves, "blocks lines of flight"?

On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 4:55 PM, Eric <rayrena at realtime.net> wrote:


> Dad. It scares me to think that many of the things that I think make
> me a good parent -- my treating my kids as their own beings not my
> property, my encouraging them to question and think and do and
> create, my allowing them to make important decisions about things
> that affect them -- are not only not dissonant with capital but
> actually encouraged by it. But that's postfordism's genius.

I'm not at all convinced of it, but supposing it is true that
capitalism encourages parents to treat their children with this kind
of respect, why is this even remotely scary?  Capitalism happens to
encourage something which we also value? Who cares?