[Marxism] The Name Game

["Jeff Rubard" <jeffrubard@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Message: 2
> Date: Sat, 27 Dec 2003 23:29:00 -0800
> From: Chris Brady <cdbrady@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [Marxism] Re.: Smoke 'em if you got 'em, and so on...
> To: marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Message-ID: <3FEE863B.ACAD054C@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> At first, after Jeff?s first sentence, mind you (something nebulous
> about "anti-labor hysteria *on the hoof*"), I anticipated, or was

This is the point: it's either Terrapin Station or Shakedown Street,
powder-puff or powder-keg, which means in the end "mad cow" (attribution
of irrationality to subalterns for the none-too-tellurian purpose of
economic disenfranchisement in the service of "transformation").  It's
razor-sharp, actually; you might want to worry about a secretary getting
cut.

> launched conceptually, into a consideration of what we might call
> "meta-capitalism" --that is *supernational* capitalism, if you will--
> where capitalism's systemic requisites, endless growth, etc., become
> more than can be fulfilled by one hyper-imperialist center, at this time
> the bad old USA.  This leads one to wonder if capitalism as a system has

You don't want to get me, or really anybody, started on the "metas" -- at
least not if Leninists are to be pleased: Imperialism was to be the
highest stage of capitalism because it was the most abstract, and Hegelian
Marxism consists in "tarrying with the negative" disjecta of concrete
experience.

> outgrown national bases of operation.  We can see that capitalism has
> is to the nation state.  Capitalism, the nervous system, cannot be
> ripped from the muscle of the nation state without slaughtering both (I
> think my analogies have been infected with the debate over BSE, but the
> US Government?s Bull Shit Excuse that if the brain and spinal cord of a
> prioned cow are tossed then its corpse is VOILA! disease-free ignores
> the tiny extenuations of charged nerve protein that make muscle in
> flesh, eyelids, twitchy toes, et hoc, do its thing).  The corporeal
> relationship is too intimate.

The mad cow thing is not really too abstract for me (I might have eaten
some of that), nor too worrying (it takes a long time for you to die from
BSE, and although the end-stages are truly horrible there is very little
cognitive degradation -- for the most part, jokes about it are really rips
disguised as "tough love".  But the economy:polity::nervous system:
muscular system analogy is ass-backwards (that is to say, enables
top-heavy low-fat politicking which does not really benefit people in
trouble).

> Other points (and more to the point):
> Voluntary exchange has never been the sine qua non of bloody capitalism,
> although its deceptive display of liberties (variously interpreted) has
> the purpose of overlaying its bossy-bully business with a veneer of
> virtues that do not really exist.

That's a downgrade from "free", and if you can't extract some kernel of
rationality from classical capitalism you wouldn't be pleasing Leninists
again.

> And, as regards:
> ??traditional dispensations of liberality in American society are being
> whittled down to totally unacceptable levels all the time.?
> Gadzooks, Mister Rhubarb!  To whom are these levels unacceptable?

No, it's actually spelled "Retard" (I was just having a little fun with
you).  To anyone who feels that contemporary American life is cold, cruel,
and bloodily cynical: in a word, unfree.  Lots of people, although I
haven't taken the time to check with people who have unquestionable names
(that's *Herr* metal, baby).

> Surely not to those who benefit from the inline harmonization of labor!
> God?s tits, man!  AND ANOTHER THING (very theatrical, wot?)  WHAT we may
> ask has ruddy tradition to do with the bourgeois ?way of life??  Customs
> and tradition were the accommodations of a distant feudarchy, and have
> no place in this brave bourzhiy world of legislated liberty.  Ohmigod!
> I fear I am remiss!  I freely admit, not being a religious person, that
> I sinfully dispensed with the Christian Church in America, and the
> condescensions vouchsafed to lesser (or lessor) superstitious creeds,
> and/or highly respected (by their adherents) spiritual institutions with
> a commercial base?  Yes, yes, by your ayes, me Marxist mateys, we do
> discern that glinting golden thread that ties pulpit to pews: they do
> make their way retailing ritual, yes!  It?s just another commodity, by
> gad!  But basta with this preaching to the choir, I must be off to find
> the rum.

Wow, that's some creolization for you (i.e., carries no unambiguous
meaning or even one permitting of easy disambiguation).

> I am beginning to think that this Marxmail vehicle should have a
> breathalyzer connected to the ignitionator.  Or mayhap we should
> consider contributions from certain times and dates with due compassion,
> e.g., late Saturday nights over the holidays (that even as atheist reds
> we admit we enjoy, which makes me say there should be more days off!).
> Cheers!
>
Well, maybe I should start listening more.

Jeff Rubard
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Sat, 27 Dec 2003 23:31:46 -0800
> From: Chris Brady <cdbrady@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [Marxism] Re.: Smoke 'em if you got 'em, and so on...
> To: marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Message-ID: <3FEE86E2.E8194444@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> Er, sorry Jeff, dear comrad Rudard,
> I mispelled your name in my last post.
> A thousand apologies.
> I'll let you call me "Steve" three times to make up for it.
>
Pal, I know enough about WASP bastardry (that is to say, more than you) to
dismiss you as a faggy pretender to the chair of "man of parts".  But I'd
really rather not; it eats bandwith other people might need.  Let's not
and say you're correct, okay?

Jeff Rubard


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