[lbo-talk] Breast milk ice cream...

Wojtek S wsoko52 at gmail.com
Mon Feb 28 07:00:43 PST 2011


Joanna: "I'm saying that part of what's going on right now is that the suffering of the poor provides content for the jaded lives of the rich. De Sade would understand me perfectly. It provides enjoyment -- that little shudder that you have escaped the worst and that in fact you can watch and taste someone else's powerlessness and suffering."

[WS:] You are absolutely right. I've seen that a lot of that in Mexico (e.g. local yuppies receiving shoe-shining services in outdoor cafes and attendants handling you toilet paper in posh hotel toilets. The spectacle aspect of it difficult to miss and it is nauseating.

However, I am not so sure about other countries. In most EU countries service is just a relatively well paid job, and usually there is no hint of servitude. Oftentimes you have to specifically ask waiters for service or check for otherwise they are nowhere to be seen. I am not sure about India, though. There are all kinds of street service providers, from shoe-shiners to "tour guides" but virtually all of them are pushers trying to fleece you and the service offer is just a shtick to get your attention. Bicycle rickshaw drivers is a bit different story because the service involves hard work performed literally before the paying client's eyes. However, most of these are used mostly by locals as one possible means of transportation, and I did not notice any spectacle being made out of it. But then, a lot of people there work hard for very little, so driving a rickshaw is just one of many low paying occupations that entail hard physical labor .

But I think you nailed something very important here - that exploitation is not just work for little (contrary to what marxists may say on the subject) but rather a master-servant relationship that the work entails. The low pay may be a part of the master-servant spectacle but it does not have to be. The essential part is the spectacle of deference of the servant (even if well paid) toward the master (who may be a low paid office grunt in his home country.) In other words, it is not about money or "economic value" (whatever that is) but about power.

Wojtek



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