[lbo-talk] Dustup - final installment

[Miles Jackson]

Doug Henwood wrote:
> 
> On Jul 25, 2008, at 11:57 PM, Miles Jackson wrote:
> 
>> I've said it before, and I'll say it again: The simplistic rhetoric  
>> of the "responsible individual" is an ideological lynchpin of  
>> American capitalism.  I have a hard time imagining how capitalism in  
>> our society would survive without the individualist rhetoric  
>> exemplified above.
> 
> 
> Yup. And it's so foundational that I can imagine how to shake it.
> 
> Doug

I'm assuming the "can" is a typo, but I would like to support that as 
written: we can imagine how to change it!  Everyday, mundane social 
interactions created the ideology, and changing those patterns of social 
interaction will change the ideology.  I realize this is less than 
satisfactory, because it just raises another practical question: how do 
we change everyday social interactions when the individualist ideology 
is so entrenched?  However, one thing that gives me hope is the 
irrefutable historical fact that every ideology that supports the 
powerful eventually fades into irrelevance--Ozymandias and all that.

Miles