Thoughts on production, alienation, and ideology
Hi all!
This is normally the time when I’d be dropping this week’s blog post. However, I’m taking a week off this week for travel. I’m attending a family reunion in the Houston area!
My family holds the reunion every year around this time, but this is the first year I’ve been able to actually attend. So, I’m pretty excited to be in town for it.
I’ll be back on my regular schedule starting next week. Hope everyone’s having a great spring.
I recently read a classic in political sociology – Power and Powerlessness by John Gaventa. It’s an insightful attempt to apply the Steven Lukes analysis of power – laid out in a book by that title – to the situation of coal miners in central Appalachia.
Gaventa seeks to explain why oppressed Appalachian miners refuse to rise up in revolt against their oppressors. While he argues for the intuitive view that the power of the mining companies prevents them from doing so, he gets there via an interesting and compelling route. Ultimately, he argues that the power of the mining companies consists, in part, in their ability to change the desires and aims of miners. Rebellion comes only when we alter those underlying power relationships.
I think we can learn a lot from Gaventa about power and powerlessness.
Ronald Purser’s recent article in Current Affairs, “Against Managerialism,” brought to mind for me a common motivation for socialism. It’s one we easily forget, even more so when we dive into the weeds of talking politics or running a socialist org.
I’m talking about economic democracy – the idea that regular, everyday workers are the most qualified to run their workplace. When I think about socialism – really reflect on it – I see economic democracy at the heart of it. And to create a real economic democracy requires us to rid the world – and ourselves – of managerialism.
Let’s say a bit more.
We’re well into spring these days. What are you reading? My list this month is a nice eclectic mix of sci-fi, historical fiction, political science, and hot topics in politics.
I hope you enjoy!
Here’s a common scenario for lone wolf activism. Imagine you’re attending a city council meeting. You probably don’t make it a habit to go to these things. Because, well, who really wants to do that? The meetings take too long. They’re uninteresting. And they cram the agenda full of inside baseball for local politicos.
As John Gaventa would put it (e.g., Power and Powerlessness), governments set up the agenda and the rules of the game to favor insiders. And to exclude people like you and I.
But there’s something you care about on the agenda this time. So, you show up and argue forcefully for your opinion on that issue. Maybe you get a little passionate. Maybe even indignant, landing a zinger at the expense of your opponents.
Or, like some people, maybe you attend every city council meeting and do this. Whichever.
The point is that, in the moment, it feels good. It feels satisfying. But then you watch the council vote the other way. They shoot down your side of the argument by a comfortable majority. You lose.
What happened here?
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