From: Jerry Levy (Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM)
Date: Thu Mar 30 2006 - 09:00:33 EST
Hi Jurriaan, Responding to the following: > I agree with the last sentence but think it rather undercuts your claim > that "people are normally pretty rational about the most important > practical issues in their lives, and very resistant to propaganda which > does not accord with their real experience of life ....". You replied: > With due respect, I don't think I am being inconsistent here. It's > perfectly possible to be pretty rational about the most important > practical issues of your life (e.g. food, sex, a home, a job), and > be ignorant about things happening far away. I strongly disagree with the claim that "people are normally pretty rational about the most important practical practical issues in their lives". To begin with -- so that we don't lose focus -- this is a _social_ issue rather than a topic which can be analyzed through the life experiences of any one individual -- you, I, or any 1 individual. All of the practical issues you list have _institutional_ aspects of _irrationality_ associated with them. Let us take the question of sex. Is there any progressive (let alone Marxian) psychologist who would say that the practical decisions being made about sex in a capitalist society are generally rational? I think not. Marx may have thought otherwise, but he was a writer from another time -- a time in which the subject of psychology was basically unknown and undeveloped. The analysis of mind and behavior is complex and can not be analyzed effectively by emphasizing the concept of rationality -- as bourgeois economists do. Gary Becker long ago tried to analyze marriage using marginalism -- but no progressive psychologist (or specialist in gender studies) takes such an belief seriously (except as a subject of critique). While it is true that one can not entirely divorce (no pun intended) the subject of sexual behavior from material reality, the former can not be deduced from the latter. While it is also true that one could probably think of some aspects of sexual behavior which are rational, the subject of sexuality under capitalism can not be grasped in general by reference to rationality. Nor can the subject of sexuality be thought of as being entirely individual -- indeed, there are whole branches of production under capitalism that have arisen which help to produce and reproduce particular images and conceptions of sexuality: pornography, for instance, isn't just about some isolated man in a room -- it is a _huge_ industry internationally. Relatedly, gender roles can not be grasped generally with reference to rationality alone! Irrationality rules! BUT, this doesn't mean that there isn't a twisted, distorted _logic_ to irrational behavior. Indeed, one needs to grasp how the irrational forms of behavior are rooted in social relations and material privileges. In any event, to believe that most people are normally pretty rational about sex is not a very enlightened perspective, imo. Nor do I think that most people are normally pretty rational about food. Most people don't think like dieticians -- their decisions are heavily influenced by culture: cultures in which firm advertising and marketing plays a significant and expanding role. In solidarity, Jerry
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