[Marxism] SEXploitation in a free market economy II

[Chris Brady <cdbrady@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Astoundingly, to me, considering that Ken Ranney's cited articles came
from the early 1980s, last night we saw a sensationally expressed TV
news report that said the same thing now, i.e., twenty years later:
youth prostitutes have high rates of STDs.  "Wow," I mumbled to no one
in particular, "Who'd a thunk it?"

How many times do we need to invent the wheel?

Decriminalization of prostitution could go a long way toward the goal of
conquering STDs.  Decriminalization of drugs could go a long way toward
the goal of conquering drug addiction/abuse.  (We've discussed these
topics on this list).  But as much as we should support these liberatory
moves, we must remind all involved that they are still only partial
palliatives, and that the real solution is revolution--remove the
profit, remove the crime.

Ken wrote: "I hope that the Marxist scholars will give us chapter and
verse
of what Marx said about the influence of the rich and powerful on our
thinking."

This is the first line from the German Ideology (1845), 2. The Illusion
of the Epoch: (3)Ruling Class and Ruling Ideas, by Karl Marx and
Frederick Engels: "The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the
ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of
society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force."
See:
http://www.ex.ac.uk/Projects/meia/Archive/1845-GI/

The Marxist idea of ideas can also be found in the Communist Manifesto
(1848):
"The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling
class."

Ken wrote: "Did he say anything about prostitution and sexually
transmitted
diseases? It may be that this relationship was so well understood in
Marx'
day that he did not feel it worthwhile even to comment on."

A search reveals Marx and Engels and succeeding Marxists did write about
prostitution and its links to poverty in capitalism, and did write about
disease and its links to poverty in capitalism.  One can perform such
searches by using the Marxist Internet Archive, or Google.

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