[lbo-talk] crises kill

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Fri Feb 29 11:08:02 PST 2008


Eric wrote:
>
>
> It's not necessarily bad. I love having my kids also be my friends
> and confidant(e)s (though one did tell me just yesterday he wanted
> knew parents that wouldn't make him take his pink-eye medicine), and
> I'm certainly not saying just because capital encourages it we
> shouldn't. But keep in mind the original context of this discussion:
> the high levels of depression and anxiety felt by young people, and
> not just by young people, today. Obviously knowledge of the world and
> oneself, skepticism, and better parenting models have not translated
> into happiness.

The empirical/historical grounds for this are suspect. There is no really good evidence that young people today suffer any moe from depression than did any other generation. There is no good evidence that one can characterize _any_ generation of parents as, in any overwhelming way, more or less 'dictatorial' than any other generation. There is no good evidence that in any significant degree 'today's young people' are any more or any less 'self-critical,' any more or less 'independent,' than any other generation of young people from the last century. Claims otherwise generalize from random examples IN THE SAME WAY that racist claims generalize from random examples.

And "capitalism" has _always_ been able to absorb almost _any_ kind of reaction or personal traits to the needs of capital. There is no evidence that this has changed in any significant way.

The whole thread from the beginning has been empty of content.

Carrol



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