> wow. you totally lost me. i have zero idea as to what you are talking
> about.
>
> you posited leftists who think that personal resp, hard work, and self
> improvement are not values that we uphold.
>
> bhaskar and i said, no actually. we think the problem is that they
> aren't realized under capitalism.
>
> what the fuck are you talking about?
>
> these are useless hoary abstractions to you?
Shag, why the hostility? Maybe I didn't make myself clear, or maybe you read my post too fast. The "hoary abstractions" I was talking about weren't yours or Bhaskar's. Nothing in the post was aimed at you. On the contrary, I was saying the argument you and Bhaskar articulated (about personal resp, hard work, etc.) is exactly the kind of argument the left *ought* to have. As *opposed* to such "hoary abstractions" as "is capital a totality?" (a meaningless example I pulled out of the air). I was saying the left needs to work out "words and theories" on subjects like personal responsibility, work, self-improvement, etc., and that the observations and arguments you and Bhaskar were making lead in exactly this direction.
Maybe I should have spelled it out. The phrase "personal responsibility, hard work, and self improvement" came from a pro-Tea Party editorial. It's standard right-wing rhetoric. It resonates with many people. When right-wingers use this rhetoric, they have in mind a particular conception of "personal responsibility, hard work, and self improvement" that we don't share. (That's what I meant when I wrote, with deliberately provocative irony, that "we disagree" with "hard work and personal responsibility.") But by default they have succeeded in making those values "right-wing" in US political discourse. This is, I argue, because the left has no rhetoric/argument/theory on this question, or at least none as familiar and instantly recognizable as the Right's.
The result, just as you said, is that many people associate such wholesome values with right-wing politics and the right scores yet another ideological, or hegemonic, victory. I was trying to suggest that maybe we could think about how to change that.
SA