[lbo-talk] more back-asswards perceptions

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Thu May 13 19:53:20 PDT 2010


Mike Ballard wrote:
>
> SA observed:
>
> >
> Ah the psychological wonders and oddities of class society.

Of class society or of a specific form of class society. In the various non-capitalist modes of surplus extraction the forces affecting one's life are, on the whole, more visible than are the forces under capitalism. Nothing within her direct (visible) daily experience explains to a factory worker why she and a third of her co-workers have suddenly been laid off! There is not much to correspond to this (non)-experience in a feudal society or palace economy.

That could make some significant psychological difference.

The local bureaucrat in (say) Mycenae doubles the amount of barley he seizes and sends off to the Palace. The local factory lays you off. No mystery about the former; a good deal of mystery about the latter.

Carrol



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