Comments on: Socialism and climate change http://polizeros.com/2008/06/16/socialism-and-climate-change/ Musings on politics: anti-war, global warming, peak oil and otherwise Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:22:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Bob Morris http://polizeros.com/2008/06/16/socialism-and-climate-change/#comment-153285 Bob Morris Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:09:10 +0000 http://polizeros.com/?p=11923#comment-153285 Also, all those huge corporations will be needed to stop global warming. They know how to build stuff on a mass scale, whether it be bombs or wind turbines. I would agree with Foucault, labour is not the essence of what a person. Part of it, yes, but not the whole thing. Also, back in Marx's day, the separation between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat was clear and obvious. But now, especially in the US, it's not. An MD who works for an HMO and makes $150,000 a year doesn't own the means of production so, in Marxist terms, is a member of the working class. But to call him that means the term no longer has any real meaning. Marxist terminology is stuck in the 19th century. Also, all those huge corporations will be needed to stop global warming. They know how to build stuff on a mass scale, whether it be bombs or wind turbines.

I would agree with Foucault, labour is not the essence of what a person. Part of it, yes, but not the whole thing. Also, back in Marx’s day, the separation between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat was clear and obvious. But now, especially in the US, it’s not.

An MD who works for an HMO and makes $150,000 a year doesn’t own the means of production so, in Marxist terms, is a member of the working class. But to call him that means the term no longer has any real meaning. Marxist terminology is stuck in the 19th century.

]]> By: Alex http://polizeros.com/2008/06/16/socialism-and-climate-change/#comment-153271 Alex Tue, 17 Jun 2008 07:35:15 +0000 http://polizeros.com/?p=11923#comment-153271 I agree. I've been reading through some Foucault on power and knowledge, and there's a lot that is of use to us now in thinking through the relations between economy, environment and capitalism. (I think I'm going to have a Foucault week on my blog soon...) As Foucault said: "I don’t think we can simply accept the traditional Marxist analysis, which assumes that, labour being man’s concrete essence, the capitalist system is what transforms that labour into profit, into hyperprofit or surplus value." Foucault talks about the infra-power of the capillaries of control at the lowest level--right down to company HR policies, job sites, the media's web of making us feel we need to work and need to know how to work and succeed... In his words, "The fact is, capitalism penetrates much more deeply than that... first obliged to elaborate a set of political techniques, techniques of power, by which man was tied to something like a labour..." Something like a labour, meaning the components of social construction of labour. The Guardian's Work supplement; GDP data that controls our sense of productive life; the reporting of people's trades when they are heroes in the Sun (Jim, 33, a fitness expert from...). All of these elements are transparent and effective, the deeper penetrations of capitalism... Or as Foucault says again: "A web of microscopic, capillary political power had to be established at the level of man’s very existence, attaching men to the production apparatus, while making them into agents of production, into workers. There is no hyperprofit without an infrapower... the whole set of little powers, of little institutions situated at the lowest level." Stopping global warming means overturning the sense of existence as tied to labour and rapacious and productive economic growth. I agree. I’ve been reading through some Foucault on power and knowledge, and there’s a lot that is of use to us now in thinking through the relations between economy, environment and capitalism. (I think I’m going to have a Foucault week on my blog soon…)

As Foucault said: “I don’t think we can simply accept the traditional Marxist analysis, which assumes that, labour being man’s concrete essence, the capitalist system is what transforms that labour into profit, into hyperprofit or surplus value.”

Foucault talks about the infra-power of the capillaries of control at the lowest level–right down to company HR policies, job sites, the media’s web of making us feel we need to work and need to know how to work and succeed… In his words,

“The fact is, capitalism penetrates much more deeply than that… first obliged to elaborate a set of political techniques, techniques of power, by which man was tied to something like a labour…”

Something like a labour, meaning the components of social construction of labour. The Guardian’s Work supplement; GDP data that controls our sense of productive life; the reporting of people’s trades when they are heroes in the Sun (Jim, 33, a fitness expert from…). All of these elements are transparent and effective, the deeper penetrations of capitalism… Or as Foucault says again:

“A web of microscopic, capillary political power had to be established at the level of man’s very existence, attaching men to the production apparatus, while making them into agents of production, into workers. There is no hyperprofit without an infrapower… the whole set of little powers, of little institutions situated at the lowest level.”

Stopping global warming means overturning the sense of existence as tied to labour and rapacious and productive economic growth.

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