Hey! What is this Yoshie? Theory of inevitable progress? Let me assure Yoshie and Daniel that I am not a woozy pre-capitalist romantic. But I will continue to wonder why such assurances are necessary at all. Look at my primitive tools, youse guys: notebook computers, scanners, printers, spreadsheet programs, web sites, etc. I hope no one is offended when I confess that I actually derive sensual pleasure from using these running-dog bourgeois instruments of oppression and exploitation. HORRORS! But my pleasure doesn't prevent me from bearing witness to the violence that takes place every day in the name of my sovereign right to possess a separate notebook computer for each colour in the rainbow.
Let's simplify this discussion: undialectical critique of capitalism: bad undialectical apology for capitalism: bad dialectical critique of capitalism: good dialectical apology for capitalism: intellectually dishonest The latter proceeds by mistaking a dialectical critique for an undialectical critique and "correcting" it where it needs no correcting. Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: >Just as wage labor is a necessary stage through which production must >pass to become socialized enough for socialism, commodification of >pleasure and sensuality is a necessary stage through which (broadly >defined) reproduction gets socialized enough for socialism. to which Daniel Davies added: >But more broadly, why all the fuss about "commodification" of pleasure and >sexuality? Isn't it enough zat zey be pleazant and zexy, without also >demanding that they be politically correct? And what if commodified >products are actually *nicer* than their non-commodified equivalents? This >is certainly true of the brewing industry, and quite possibly of many >others. Tom Walker
