I wrote:
>>why is "human agency" so important to an analysis of what the ruling
>>class does?
Doug writes:
>Because it's important to show that what humans can do, humans can also
>undo - that the "laws" of capitalism are the result of a social system and
>not more-or-less immutable physical forces. The ruling class likes to talk
>about the inevitability of globalization - like Bill Clinton, who said a
>few months ago: "Yet, globalization is not something we can hold off or
>turn off. It is the economic equivalent of a force of nature -- like wind
>or water."
I, for one, don't jump from the idea that capitalism has laws of motion to
that of inevitability.
Though I agree that we should pay attention to human agency, we should also
remember the problem with _too much_ of an emphasis on human agency in
understanding the ruling class: it opens the way to conspiracy theory or
(more mildly) an over-emphasis on the advantages of Al Gore over George W.
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
