Re: Heroes, causes and Marx

[Margaret Trawick <trawick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>> The minute you deify him, you kill the contribution.

>
>Of course ... Marx never asked to be deified.
>

I know.  But some people seem to do it anyway.

>> assuming inevitability is a form of fatalism.  It encourages inaction.


>Unless you re-define the term "inevitable". What I'm
>saying is that the term "inevitable" may not be meant
>literally. Perhapse, the "inevitability" of the demise
>of capitalism refers to two things combined ...
>
>  (1) Capitalism causes serious social problems, to
>  which many people in *all* nations (including the
>  US) are victims.
>
>  (2) If enough people get sick of these bad conditions
>  that are brought on by capitalism, the pelple *can*
>  fight back, and do so *successfully*. The key words
>  being "*enough* people". Just a person here and a
>  person there won't be enough to stop capitalist
>  exploitation. It has to be a large enough group.
>

No problem with this.  We differ as to the meaning of the word "inevitable."
But that is not important.  Anyone out there want to tell us what Marx
intended?

>>   Capital (money) is the most convenient means of exchange.  It is also
>> the most convenient means of domination.  I do not see any way to stop
>> capitalist exploitation except from within the capitalist system itself,
>> through anti-trust legislation and the like.
>


>There is a point here ... but eliminating currency and
>going back to the barter system is not necessarily the
>solution to our problems.

I agree.  Did not mean to suggest otherwise.


>Then again, though I do not advocate abolishing
>currency, I *do* think it needs to be reformed.
>

Mmm.  Yes.  How?


>[snip]
>>
>> The workers of the USA rightly consider that they have a pretty good deal.
>> They are better fed than the workers of any other country, and they want to
>> keep it that way.  They know that they are members of the global ruling
>class.
>> Sure they are exploited by the hyper-rich and they know that, too.  They
deal
>> with it by means of their own mini-capitalist enterprises.  They would be
out
>> of their minds to try and overthrow the American Way.
>>
>[snip]



>I disagree with this statement about America. Most Americans
>*don't* want to be exploited ... but they just don't know
>what they can do about it.
>
>True, the American worker's class may have more *physical*
>means than workers in other countries ... but not enough
>to make up for the fact that they, just like workers of
>everywhere else, have little or no control over their
>what happens.
>


Nobody wants to be exploited.  But everyone is, to some extent or another.
Everyone gets used, against their will, to further the purposes of other
people.  The classic example is kids being used by their parents (and vice
versa).  Some are severely exploited, and rebel in  a radical fashion, if they
think they can get away with it.  Other severely exploited people know they are
exploited, but can find no way out.

A "wise" exploiter (ruler, king, father, whatever) ensures that the
exploitation is not too severe, and provides for the well-being of the
exploited.  And/or ensures that the exploited have no way out.

In America, countless people who call themselves "rebels" are fondly
tolerated.  They dye their hair green, wear safety pins though their ears, hack
into and alter the White House website for a day.  They get lots of publicity
and in this way their dreams are fulfilled.

America's worst-off are in prison.  Escape is not possible.  The last serious
prison revolt I heard of in America was Attica.  America holds many people in
prison.  These people are shunned by the mainstream working class.

In America, having a job and making money are what it's all about.  Respect is
accorded to you by the nature of your job, and by how much money you make.  On
the edge between the working class and the impoverished unemployed, having a
job at all, any job, and taking the shit of working that job, is a badge of
honor.  The only other option is to go outside the law - sell drugs, be a pimp
or a whore, and submit to the exploitation of the gang bosses.

America's working class consists of people who have jobs, take the shit that
comes down from above, and take pride in their ability to take the shit.  Those
who cannot or will not take it are derided as weak and parasitic.

America's working class, on the whole, have physical well-being.  They have
food enough to fill their bellies.  One of America's supreme ironies is that
obesity is a working class and sub-working-class affliction. In Third World
countries, fat is a sign of prosperity.

If you think that physical well-being is trivial compared to freedom from
exploitation, think again.

America's working class takes pride in the very fact of being the working
class.  America's working class has guns in every home.  America's working
class loves the freedom of the open road.  America's working class keeps family
close and supports family values.  America's working class waves the American
flag.  America's working class joins and supports the American military
establishment.  America's working class would rather be exploited than go
hungry.  America's working class is happy to see Mexicans starve and struggle
in vain for what the American working class has by accident of birth: American
citizenship.

And that's the bottom line.

MT