[lbo-talk] Adolph Reed responds to Alan Rudy

brad bauerly bbauerly at gmail.com
Tue Oct 6 05:38:38 PDT 2009


"...who the hell does Michaels think is his audience?"

Not sure but it seems to be the crowd that keeps screaming at the working class that the problem is that it is racist, sexist, homophobic and generally backwards (let's not forget stupid to be religious too). Reminded me of the critique of the enlightenment critique of religion that Marx touches on in Capital 1: "The religious reflections of the real world can, in any case, vanish only when the practical relations of everyday life between man and man, and man and nature, generally present themselves to him in a transparent and rational form" (sorry for the reproduction of gendered language there). The same reason that most on the left long ago stopped yelling at the working class that they are irrational and dumb for believing in god and practicing religion, would seem to also apply to the practice of constantly telling them that they are racist. Some are racist of course, but I don't think it is the majority and even if it were we are not going to change there need to try and make some sense out of this 'up-side-down world' in which their work is being ever undermined, commodified, and used against them in society by telling them that they are transferring their alienation. Better I think to simply outline the class system that is exploiting them.

Brad



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