[OPE-L] resnick and wolff on the commodity form

From: Hans G. Ehrbar (ehrbar@LISTS.ECON.UTAH.EDU)
Date: Mon Dec 19 2005 - 22:57:02 EST 

Steve,

I think societies are possible in which volitional
individual agency and social relations co-determine each
other without one being overarching.  In could imagine that
in future socialist societies individuals would work
together in order to deliberately modify their social
relations, perhaps in order to turn them into a more
nourishing and wholesome backdrop for individual
flourishing.  In capitalism, individuals try to
instrumentalize their social relations for their private
benefit, but they do not succeed because they do not address
the social relations themselves but try to take advantage of
the social properties of the commodities they are holding.
In other words, their efforts are derailed by the
fetish-like character of the commodity.  They end up as
pawns of the accumulation of capital rather than the masters
of their own fate.


--
Hans G. Ehrbar   http://www.econ.utah.edu/~ehrbar   ehrbar@economics.utah.edu
Economics Department, University of Utah     (801) 581 7797 (my office)
1645 Campus Center Dr., Rm 308               (801) 581 7481 (econ office)
Salt Lake City    UT 84112-9300              (801) 585 5649 (FAX)

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