Individualising effects of power

I would like to start a new thread in this list, namely, the individualising
effects of power. It blows away the Marxist concept of the 'class
struggle'. I'll give you an example. In a recent study of redundant
workers, there is an individisible connection between thought and action;
how human beings see themselves positioned in the world and ideas that
have been psychologically inculcated over time. When individuals in the
study were repeatedly turned down for jobs, damage to the self had already
been legitimised through historical conditioning. What is more, pressure to
believe they were inadequate was intensified through the individualising
effects of power which pits potentially redundant and workers actually
redundant against one another. Thus they became pawns to classify,
categorise and control.

To take another practical example here in good old Aotearoa, when redundant
workers were examined, power was found to have an isolating effect as
subjects competed with one another for scarce recognition. A similar
effect occurred when the time came to 'reform' the industrial relations
system with individual or collective contracts. Individual contracts
render workers uncertain of themselves under systems of surveillance and in
competition with one another. So we see that power has an individualising
effect and therefore it is an advantage to exploit it.

Ross

Do not ask me who I am and do not ask me to remain the same : leave it to
our bureaucrats and our police to see that our papers are in order
Ross James Swanston
breezey@xxxxxxxxxxxxx



Folow-ups
  • Re: Individualising effects of power
    • From: Stephen D'Arcy
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