[lbo-talk] IT innovation and "the Markets"

[Fernando Cassia]

On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 8:14 PM, Somebody Somebody <philos_case at yahoo.com> wrote:
> When precisely did Marxism become so fanatically opposed to technological progress? We're a long way from Lenin's conception of soviet power plus electrification.
>
> My sense is that this shift towards technophobia is basically a rationalization of failure, the result of making a vice into a virtue. Really existing socialism proved to be less productive and inventive than leading capitalist economies on the whole - so there comes a point when instead of trying to compete Khrushchev style with the West, you just throw up your hands and claim that it was never your intention to continue the development of the productive forces after all.

Whoa!!! My thumbs up on this!

There's a difference between "crappy mass production" of plastic shit
in China, useless "as seen on TV" products for needs that nobody has
(USB CUP warmer, anyone?), vs real technological progress... as in
Netbooks that use one-third of the power that previous laptops used
and weight less than a half.

FC