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

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Tue Feb 16 14:51:34 PST 2010


SA wrote:


>
> 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.

I agree that the type of industrialized society that we live in requires a technical specialization of labor. Most of the technologies we use require people to devote substantial time and energy to learning one specific field. I'm not sure how someone could be a neurosurgeon in the morning and semiconductor designer in the afternoon, to poke fun at the famous quotation.

However, I can't imagine a society that "eliminates the independent of will phenomenon". All societies have social structures that exist prior to the individual and shape individual's lives above and beyond any personal choices. Examples: language, norms, economic mode of production. Getting rid of the technical division of labor simply means that other forms of social structure with different emergent properties would assert an independent effect on individuals' lives.

Miles



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