[lbo-talk] Kenneally, some notes and background

James Heartfield Heartfield at blueyonder.co.uk
Fri Jun 12 11:00:21 PDT 2009



> Is there some society in which people have no spinal cord?

Well, thanks to modern social care, people with paralysis due to spinal injuries no longer have to be left on the hillside to die, so yes, the society in which there are (some) people without a functioning spinal cord who nonetheless make a contribution, is our society.

Chris writes "All human organization of production is social, because we are social animals. "

To which I say, there is social production and social production. Hunter-gathering societies are pretty limited in their productive capacity, and tend to have a much larger land footprint (and therefore push the land's carrrying capacity very low). Industrial societies generate a much larger output, and so sustain greater numbers. The population difference between the two states is the proportion of human beings who we could call socially constructed. Or more properly, we say, they are all socially constructed, since every one is in truth the product of the social order that sustains them, as it is their product in turn.



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