[lbo-talk] The zen of marx (was clarification)

Lakshmi Rhone lakshmirhone at gmail.com
Tue Feb 16 10:42:36 PST 2010


http://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/28992/Sensat.pdf.txt;jsessionid=csof78aafcpt?sequence=3

Find where the analysis begins discussing how we become playthings of forces that we create.

LR

On 2/16/10, Lakshmi Rhone <lakshmirhone at gmail.com> wrote:
> That is a gruesome post; I don't understand a word of it. But the
> following paragraph seems
> sweet indeed.
>
> LR
>
>
> On 2/16/10, Nelson Goodman <nelsongoodman at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Lakshmi, whether or not it is best captured by Carrol’s
> > phrase of “operating wholly independently of human will,” the idea that
> > capitalism is a “system” – i.e., an institutional structure with a set of
> > associated dynamics or logics that cannot be reduced to the will of individual
> > persons, is, I think, an indispensable idea. At the most abstract level, the basic notion as I see it is as
> > follows: the institutional structure of
> > capitalism – namely, private ownership of productive assets + commodity
> > production (or production for exchange value) + wage labor – forces all
> > individuals within that institutional structure to act in ways that they might
> > not otherwise wish to and, further, results in a series of typical dynamics
> > that stem from the properties of the system rather than the pre-systemic traits,
> > desires, etc. of individuals. While none
> > of the dynamics can occur without decisions and actions taken by the
> > individuals who comprise the system (and to that extent it the system is not “independent”
> > of individuals), all that is needed in terms of individual choice is that people
> > wish to avoid some combination of destitution and indignity, with all further
> > variations between individuals being secondary factors (and thus the system’s
> > operation is to that extent not “reducible” to individuals).
>



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