[lbo-talk] Marx without quotation marks

[Miles Jackson]

Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> On Apr 1, 2009, at 3:36 PM, Miles Jackson wrote:
>
>> Let's put Foucault's point bluntly: the purpose of the prison system 
>> is to create criminals and expand various social practices and 
>> discourse to "control" criminality.  As far as I can see, the U. S. 
>> prison system is a wonderful case study that illustrates Foucault's 
>> point.
>
> I find this a seductive explanation, but just how does it happen? Did 
> Nixon sit down and plan it out when he unleashed the war on crime? And 
> what about the role of politicians pandering to the "get tough" crowd 
> of voters? In the U.S., the incarceration boom had pretty broad 
> popular support.
>
> Doug
>
According to F, the modern penal system is an emergent property of 
social/discursive formations;  it is not a product of individual 
planning and motives.   (Man, you walked into that one!)

Miles