Base and Superstructure

Alienation, autonomy, and ideology

Category: Class (Page 13 of 24)

doom cults death cults

Death Cults and Doom Cults: COVID Politics

August 5, 2021 /

I’ve been thinking recently about how politics changed in the era of COVID-19. In doing so, my mind drifted right away to two emerging movements. I’m talking about right-wing death cults and leftish doom cults. But we’ll get there in a bit.

Before that, I want to issue a call for compassion. The last year+ fucked people up in lots of ways. 600,000 Americans died (so far). Millions lost family or friends. Millions got COVID themselves, and they spent weeks – even months – recovering from it. Let’s say it hasn’t been a great time for mental health.

Back, then, to the topic at hand.

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Social Democracy or Socialist Democracy?

July 19, 2021 /

socialist democracy

Sometimes I’m a bit fixated on the distinction between social democracy and socialism (or socialist democracy). And I approach the topic from many angles. We might tell one from the other in terms of how they build programs, how (and whether) they oppose capitalism, who makes up their base, how (and whether) they engage in class struggle, and whether morality drives their politics. And we even find that language (and/or inflation thereof) plays a role.

Furthermore, this stands out as no mere academic debate. It drives movement and electoral strategy, as well as how leftist orgs grow.

A book I was just reading reminded me of another approach to it. That approach concerns creativity, democracy, and innovation. Let’s take a look.

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project managers

Do Companies Need Project Managers?

July 5, 2021 /

I want to pick up a thread from three recent posts on the Agile business approach. This thread concerns the role of project management and project managers – two different roles, as we’ll see.

In those other posts, I pointed out – among other things – that Agile concerns product development, not product management. But I pointed out that – at a deeper level – project managers serve a role in the system of class struggle underneath Agile. Beyond that, they often serve in roles oddly parallel of those of middle managers.

Let’s ask another question along those lines: do companies really need project managers? At all? Even on their own terms (i.e., profit and loss)?

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Agile and its Discontents

June 28, 2021 /

agile discontents

About a month ago, I wrote a post on Agile – a set of ideas, business methods, and (perhaps) ideology. I invited readers to share their experiences with it, and I reflected a bit on my own. There’s also plenty of business literature available to those who want to find it. In short, Agile starts from the need for business agility (i.e., adaptability to change), and then it moves to a variety of methods of implementation. Scrum stands out as the most common.

With a month behind us, let’s take another look at Agile!
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