[lbo-talk] Jacobin debate up

[Nathan S.]

On 10/20/2011 02:28 PM, Eric Beck wrote:
> No, it's exactly the opposite. I agree with Shag: it's deeply
> materialist. Instead of assuming that capitalist command works because
> people lack the nerve, will, or organization to throw it off (as soft
> materialism believes), it recognizes that it works at all levels of
> existence, not just the obviously economic ones, and that we reproduce
> it every day in our actions, relationships, etc. This is the meaning
> of the quote Angelus passed around: Capitalism works because you do.
> There's no moralism in that; instead, it's an acknowledgment of
> capital's working in every pore of society, its ability to touch every
> aspect of our lives. But it's also an acknowledgment of its
> limitations: it always relies on reproductive labor it can never fully
> control.

But in that case it really does start to become an empirical question, 
implying the need to look to really-existing/have-existed pre-captial 
and non-capitalist formations to determine which relations continue and 
how they change.

-- 
Nathan