“Individuals are now ruled by abstractions”*
by Will, 22 December 2007
I am coming late to this but thanks to Fleeing a Ghost have now caught up with… anyways…political-philosophical analysis to be found in a marvellous post here — Kpunk’s Marxist take on Supernanny (TV shit in general — like Charlie Brooker with a PHD), leading into some interesting thoughts on blogging, Spinoza, Zizek, the goals of a genuine left… i.e a goal that should not be to take over the State but to subordinate the State to the general will (and the problems with Facebook and Myspace!!).
* Marx, Karl (1973) Grundrisse
Fuck. I wish I could formulate and organise my thoughts just so. Alas I am in xmas mode. Always.
Saturday 22 December 2007 at 3:29
tx. for this. excellent piece
Saturday 22 December 2007 at 7:11
He has many interesting observations, but then falls, settling for the Marxist banality of blaming all of society’s problems on “Capital”. That’s as pointless as blaming everything on “the interactions of atoms.” Einstein once insulted a physicist who wrote a useless paper by saying, “it’s not even wrong.”
Saturday 22 December 2007 at 9:49
To be more explicit about my criticism, Mark seems to be saying that serious problems in society can be traced to the effects of parents not having enough time to spend with their children.
Ok, that’s true.
And then he attributes this to “capitalism” rather than to find more specific reasons and mechanism by which our system and our culture has created this problem.
Almost anything other than blaming “capitalism” could have been the start of something useful.
He could have criticized the ethics of employment practices and suggested ways of changing those. He could have talked about social attitudes that could pressure for a change. He could have even talked about people who have good jobs being forced to work long hours - perhaps making more money than they need, but being wage slaves who don’t actually have the freedom to take care of their children.
He could have talked about legislation that could give people more freedom.
But no. Capitalism. Yeah. We’re going to get rid of that. Problem solved.
Saturday 22 December 2007 at 9:53
Hell, he could have talked about the mechanisms of capitalism in society that create institutions that aren’t a good fit to human needs, and thought about whether some of those pressures could be ameliorated..
It’s even possible to talk about modifying capitalism and be useful.. But you have to accept that Capitalism isn’t going to disappear - if you want change, then you can never stop at “the harmful effects of capital”.
Saturday 22 December 2007 at 12:54
But there are limits to this emphasis on good health: mental health and intellectual development barely feature at all, for instance. (When will there be a Channel 4 programme called ‘You Are What You Read?’) What we see instead is a reductive, hedonic model of health which is all about ‘feeling good’. To tell people how to lose weight, or how to better decorate their neo-liberal burrow, is acceptable; but to call for any kind of cultural improvement is to be oppressive and elitist.
As a fat adult educator I couldn’t agree more.
Saturday 22 December 2007 at 12:55
I believe you will find it was Wolfgang Pauli, not Einstein, who made the “not even wrong” observation; one of my favourites.
/pedantic intervention
Monday 24 December 2007 at 18:54
But you have to accept that Capitalism isn’t going to disappear
It fucks off sharpish when the money goes.