[lbo-talk] "Ruling Class" as Agent?????

[Wojtek S]

[WS:]  It may be frustrating but not surprising.  Burawoy (_Manufacturing
consent_) described that behavior among factory workers.  What transpires
from his research and also studies of social movement participation (Snow et
al.) is that - as the old Eastern European commies used to say - being
determines consciousness (not the other way around.)  Or, as US trained
sociologists would say, social interaction aligns cognitive frames of
participants.  That is, people participate in particular types of social
interaction (such as social movements or shop-floor games described by
Burawoy) because their peers or significant others do, and their thinking
changes as a result of that participation.  Otoh, thinking in a certain way
is not a good predictor of participation.

The "stooges" who reproduce capitalism-friendly forms of behavior on the
shop-floor or in their academic pursuits do so not necessarily because their
embrace capitalist ideology (they are often very critical of it as
Dissenting Wren aptly pointed out), but rather because such forms have been
successfully institutionalized in the everyday life.  This can be
demonstrated by the counterexample of Communist Eastern Europe, where very
different forms of everyday behavior had been institutionalized - ones that
can be subsumed under the heading "screw the system."  Consequently, even
stooges loyal to the system behaved in the "screw the system" way, as
documented in US literature (cf. Feiwel, Wedel or Kennedy).

This is why the demise of labor unions and the dearth of "left" institutions
(such as cooperatives or political parties) in the US has such  devastating
consequences for the prospect of any opposition to capitalism in this
country.  Participation in such institutions changes consciousness by
instituting certain forms of every day life behavior.  This cannot be
accomplished by mere persuasion - as the academic types tend to hope.  It
also explains why so many people may be disillusioned about capitalism, but
go on reproducing it in their everyday life activities (be it shop floor or
academic pursuits.)

Wojtek

On Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 10:13 PM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:


>
> On Dec 15, 2010, at 3:54 PM, Dissenting Wren wrote:
>
> > After
> > years of trying, I still don't know how to bring their formless critique
> into
> > connection with the notion that meaningful collective action is possible.
>
> If they think everything is fucked and hopeless, and there's not much of an
> alternative on offer, why should they risk anything for no imaginable
> payoff? Who's going to go first? Just do your best to get by. It's a system
> that encourages cynical resignation. I feel it myself about 40 times a day.
>
> Doug
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