In a message dated 2/2/2010 9:29:43 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, _rdum...@autodidactproject.org_ (mailto:rdum...@autodidactproject.org) writes: I refuse to use self-checkouts under any circumstances. Well, I've done it on Amtrak, but not in supermarkets or drug stores. Hopefully, live cashiers will not be eliminated completely. Comment No one can accuse the author of "Robotic Nation" of radicalism or even a ting of left wing politic on the basis of this article. I consider Mr. Brain article to be exceptional due to its utter lack of thick ideology characteristic of various strains of Marxism. We have over the past decade discussed the issue of the path of the new revolution in technology. Of interest is Mr. Brain's reference sources and use of data. For instance he stated that 60% of the American working class makes $14 an hour and less. I lack precise data but at least 40%, perhaps 60% of the working class consist of temporary and "throw away" workers. We have arrived in a different world. Brain - his real name, also uses as a time index of the years 2030 and 2055. Over the past decade of this list I have argued that society is in the grips of a new revolution in the mode of production, whose implications are as staggering as that of the industrial revolution. Ralph, you have never opposed this general projection and tended towards a disposition that most Marxists and revolutionaries are not prepared to discuss this fact of our lives due to the social implications, given our history and the complexity of class and color. On the other hand Comrade Charles, a genuine brother and comrade despite differences in theory application, has tended to believe that a revolution in technology is taking place but it has no profound implications as revolution in the mode of production compelling society to leap to a new foundation. Comrade Charles has also made it clear that something new is taking place,. but pinpointing the exact benchmarks and junctures was in dispute. Generally, his view has matched that of much of the Marxist movement, claiming that we face a revolution in communications or information, rather than the application of a new revolutionary technology to advanced automation. Automation or the automation or self acting machine described by Marx is not the meaning of advanced robotics. . Marshall Brain describes an experience being repeated millions of time by the American people as a whole. An experience and leap in thinking that was the results of a visit to McDonald's. We argued over McDonalds on this very list, as this corporation revolutionized its instruments of production to stave off the impact of the law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. The value relations is being destroyed by the advance of the technological revolution and this is new in human history. As long as the industrial revolution grew the working class against the backdrop of agricultural relations, the industrial revolution had not peaked. The industrial revolution peaked in America at the front of the curve. This is due to our country being a pure capitalist country and other factors. Let me back up a bit. In 1989 a group of revolutionaries, I have been involved for a life time - since age 16 and I am currently 57, declared to themselves that our view of society was bankrupt. Bankrupt was the exact word used to describe our previous understanding of classes and Marx meaning of social revolution. This was stated in a pamphlet called "Enter An Era of Social Revolution," in the early 1990's. Perhaps this pamphlet needs to be on line and available to everyone as a historical document. We sensed something different was taking place in society expressed in Chrysler's 1979 collapse, but could not put our finger of exactly what it was. A decade later we began to speak of a new class in society created on the basis of a revolution in the mode of production. Our language was narrow at first because what we were dealing with was new. By new class is meant a new form of the working class, while the property form of class, which cast the working person as proletariat had not changed. At one point on this list a comradely exchange insured with Comrade Jim F. over the concept of lumpen proletariat and whether or not it was applicable to America. This exchange was honest and what was being looked at was the destruction of the working class and the emergence of a class sector increasingly pushed out of the civic society of the bourgeoisie. The lupmen is a product of the break down of feudal society. This new class or new proletariat is the product of the break down of two events: capitalism and the industrial system. I had written in the past that by 2030 no one would argue over the social consequence of the revolution in the productive forces. As usual I was wrong. With the publication of Mr. Brain's "Robotic Nation" no one with a materialist orientation can argue against the revolution in the productive forces.
2010 is the 30 year anniversary of "The Third Wave." Perhaps a review and re-assessment of this book is needed, although the last time this was tried, comrades were not prepared to listen. The semi-conductor is the culmination of many clusters of the technology advance. It's a game changer as profound as the steam engine. Mr. Brain's article expands the language of the revolutionary advance. Today, bourgeoisie and proletariat face each other in partial external collision. The connection at the point of production has been severed for a mass of humanity. The market has reached its peak of expansion and is in decay. Technology can no longer expand the market and limits are being reached as to the density of the market. Brother, let us march on til victory is won/one. Proletarians Unite or perish. WL. _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
