William S. Lear wrote: >I feel that there are (at least) two major flaws to capitalist >production: 1) Alienation, aka wage slavery; 2) Bias against public >goods and for private goods which generate negative externalities. We need more on 1), I'd say. I put Verso's Manifesto poster up over my desk, with the Komar/Melamid flag on top, and "WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE, YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT YOUR CHAINS," all in caps below. Staring at it, I first thought that the language of chains didn't have much appeal to the people who were the likely targets of the poster. Sure, there are (mostly figuratively, some literally) chained proletarians in New York City and Juarez, but most First World workers wouldn't even want to see themselves as chained. Then I thought about those auto and steel workers who loved their 50+ hour weeks, so they could earn lots of overtime and pull down $80-100,000 a year. Killing themselves, killing any chance of a civilized home or social life, for what? SUVs? These are chains of a different sort, but people are so alienated that they can't even see them. So they turn to self-help books and Viagra. Doug
