[lbo-talk] Doug, on Salon

[Carrol Cox]

Let's try it this way. Amin, I think, coined the label, "tributary." It
covers most or all societies grounded in direct extraction of the surplus
from a peasantry. Every 'event' n such a society is complete in itself; it
has no necessary relationship to any other event. Another way of putting it
is that in such a society there can _never_ be the 'problem' of Too Much.
The product of one peasant (or the activity which produces that product) has
no relation to the product (or productive activity) of any other peasant.
Only external events can shake these social relations. Even a successful
peasant revolt does not shake the stability of the basic 'system.' It took
over 2 centuries for capitalist relations to become firmly established in
the land of their birth, and about two centuries more for those relations to
spread globally. Perhaps another way of putting it is that in a tributary
society all labor is concrete; the labor of one peasant (or even of one
independent artisan) does not enter into the 'meaning' of the labor of
another peasant.  No product has Value; no labor is alienated.

Carrol

-----Original Message-----
From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
On Behalf Of Michael Smith
Sent: Saturday, October 12, 2013 8:18 PM
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Doug, on Salon

On Sat, 12 Oct 2013 19:45:29 -0500
"Carrol Cox" <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:


> Japanese Feudalism was pretty stable.

I don't know the first thing about 'Japanese Feudalism', but as a general
principle -- I daresay Carrol would agree -- taxonomy in itself tends to
obscure variation, and distance still more. 

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