RE: The attached posting:
There is a tendency among certain sects on the Left to think that the
workers do not have brains on their own and cannot think for themselves,
until the brave revolutionaries liberate them from the yoke of false
consciousness they have been imbued with by the bourgeois propagandists.
Not coincidentally, such an idea is not the hallmark of the Left, but IMHO
it is a carry-over from economic determinism the Left inherited from the Old
Man. Many economists tend to assume a point of view I call "omniscient
rationality" (as opposed to "bounded rationality" some transaction cost
economics people are talking about) which essentially rests on the
assumption that all people think and made their "rat-choices" the way the
economists do -- and if they evidently do not, they are presmued to be not
fully rational. That is intellectual arrogance of the prime quality -- if
you do not think as I do, you are an idiot.
It seems to me that there is more into religion and myth than a mere Brahmin
caste in cahoots with the ruling clique -- although that is often the case
(of course, the same can be said about any other group of intellectuals,
especially lawyers, economists, and political scientists). There is even
more than bamboozling the supposedly "brain dead" workers into the
acceptance of the status quo, although that too is the standard practice in
most major religions, including the civil religions of the state and
corporations.
IMHO, the reason the Left is loosing touch with the working class (which,
using Gramsci's metaphor, is its 'organic ally') precisely because Left wing
intellectuals are not really interested in what working class people
actually think, but instead try to indoctrinate them with their own ideas.
This is precisely what bourgeois pundits do with one important exception --
the pundits have much greater resources at their disposal than Left wing
intellectuals.
Of course, there are exceptions. There is solid Marxist (as opposed to the
"identity politics" that is nowadays treandy on the Left) and empirical (as
opposed to rat-choice speculations) on how workers actually perceive their
own working conditions. An example is Michael Burawoy's study
_Manufacturing Consent_ based on his observations carried out in
manuifacturing plants in the Chicago area.
It seems to me that any social institution, from the market to the media to
religion can be construed and used by different individuals in many
different ways that intellectuals have not even dreamed of. That reminds me
of a story from my cultural anthropology class -- somebody conducted a test
consisting of asking Rs to come up with the ways one can use a newspaper.
Most middle class whities provided a short list of standard uses that
centerd either around reading, setting up a fire, or a certain hygenic
procedure carried out solitarily. However, one respondent, an adolescent
living in an inner city ghetto, came up with over a 100 creative uses most
middle class whities (including myself) have not even heard of.
The bottom line of the story is that poverty forced that person to be
extremely resourceful and to use whatever little means s/he had creatively.
I would presume that the same holds for how people define and use evey
social institution and aspect of their daily lives. The middle class
pundits live in a very stereotyped and sanitized world indeed, and there is
a whole bunch of things they have not even dreamed of. Unfortunately, they
tend to think that theirs is the most rational and intellectually superior
point of view.
cheers,
wojtek sokolowski
enclosed posting:
>TO: Marxism list-e-mail, INTERNET:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>CC: J.S.Daborn, INTERNET:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Mauro, INTERNET:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> curtis price, INTERNET:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> SLP, 75702,1036
>
>Re: ISO/US & SWP-UK= Cliffite muddle on ideology
>
>DEar friends,
>
>In the Socialist Worker/US dtd. May 24th , paper of trotskyist Int'l.
Socialist Org./US,
>their is on Pg 7 , a muddled explanation of Ideology from Duncan Hallas .
>
>In "How our rulers keep their Grip". Hallas I think , while making a some
good points
>of how the exploiters bamboozle workers to keep us stupified and in the dark ,
>also makes some key blunders.
>
>First of all Hallas underestimates the role of religious mystifications
todayamongst
>the workers and the petit bourgeois. He seems to have a economist notion
>that religion became passe as a weapon of reaction when the bourgeois
>revolutions prevailed over feudalism .
>This is a serious error, true for a time the bourgeois fought it out with
the reaction
>with fuedalism/mainly catholicism in capitals "ascendant period" up to
about 1900.
>But the bourgeois, in their present period of decadence have made peace
with the
> catholic church and the other churches/religions,
>be they Christian, Judaic, Mohammedin, Shintoist, etc, have been reunited
with the
>rulers and policies of the various capitalist rulers of the nation states.
The religions
>themselves have a huge material stake in the continuance of capitaist
exploitation
>and wage slavery and alterations of their doctrines and practices prove this.
>
>Also Hallas/ISO have a wooden view of ideological struggle . They seems to
thinthat
>ALL ideology constitutes "false consciousness" . I don't think this
consistent with
>dialectics . In fact ideological struggle is part of the class struggle in
societal
>superstructure connected to the economic basis of class contradiction.
>
>Marx/Engels never stated that ALL ideology was false consciousness as the
>Cliffites assert . They pointed out that the dominant idelogies of ever
class society
>were ever the concepts of the ruling classes.
>But this did not leave the workers helpless, they could combat this not
only by
>their industrial unification/combination in the class struggles agaisnt
wage slavery,
>but by their own self- controlled political/ideological groups and parties
that would
>imbue the workers with the antidote of proletarian ideology - ideas that are
>consistent with workers collective class interests and prepare better to
wage war
>on bourgeois ideology which corrupts and stunts workers class conscoiusness.
>
>This is a front of the class war we cannot neglect any longer . but with
the ISO views
>dominant , the rulers have secured the weak points in proletarian line of
battleand if
>marxists cant help fill the breach, the bosses and their media will continue
>to blow right through these parts of the class war fronts with devastating
>consequences!
>
>Neil
>
>
>
wojtek sokolowski
johns hopkins university
baltimore, md 21218
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
