This statement ignores that systems of domination are always fraught with contradictions. As Marx noted, and Althusser always insisted, the class war begins on the terrain of ideology. robert wood
> Miles Jackson wrote:
>
>> I've said it before on the list, but I can't resist jumping in again.
>> Moral reasoning rarely "guides" or "drives" behavior; rather, it
>> primarily functions as post hoc justification (or condemnation) of
>> actions already taken. Nietzsche is very good on this: morality is a
>> product of power relations, and it is informative to trace the
>> genealogy of certain moral systems (e.g., Christian "slave"
>> morality). However, the moral system is always the product of the
>> historical moment, not the cause. To explain a social movement or a
>> social transformation by appealing to the moral beliefs of individuals
>> is a fundamental category error that--not coincidentally!--is endemic
>> to capitalist social relations (e.g., "people are poor because they
>> don't have a good work ethic").
>
> I hate this kind of argument. I always picture the advocate of this view
> watching a puppy being tortured and inwardly reproaching himself for his
> bourgeois sentimental feelings of outrage. Miles, you live under
> capitalist social relations, yet you don't believe people are poor
> because they don't have a good work ethic. How'd that happen? If you
> woke up under a fascist regime, would you support the Fuhrer because,
> after all, morality is merely a product of power relations? This
> argument makes no sense at all.
>
> SA
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