I can't totally control everything! Oh no! The horror!
----- Original Message ---- From: SA <s11131978 at gmail.com> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Sent: Tue, February 16, 2010 10:44:51 PM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] The zen of marx (was clarification)
Carrol Cox wrote:
> If the division of labor is unavoidable, and if SA is correct, then
> humanity is fucked.
> Note: The "social division of labor" and the "technical division of
> labor" are not the same thing. And the bridge humanity has to cross is
> maintaining the latter while overcoming the former.
This is ambiguous. Overcoming the "social division of labor" can mean many very different things.
The division of labor that it would be necessary to overcome is that in which (as prevails today) the production of most individual goods requires a process - starting from the raw material stage, all the way through the finished-good stage - involving the labor of thousands of people scattered in far-flung locations who cannot directly coordinate among themselves. Put more succinctly, it's the situation that prevails when the *technical* conditions of production eliminate the possibility of face-to-face coordination.
This is the situation in today's economy for the vast majority of commodities and it's dictated essentially by the *technical* division of labor. So I tend to think it's the technical division of labor that would have to be abolished to eliminate the independent-of-will phenomenon.
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