Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1996 08:02:44 -0600
Subject:  Re: Groups as basic unit of production -Reply


>>> Adam Rose <adam-AT-pmel.com>  4/12/96, 07:59am >>>
[Lisa] seems to be posing questions which are difficult to answer,
because they are asking questions similar to "given the physics of
the internal combustion engine, how do we explain traffic jams ?".

Lisa:  Now, try to be fair, yourself, I am saying nothing like that. 
Isn't there room for some valid analysis of traffic jams that
examines individuals, to see that the huge mysterious structure is
actually the outcome of various people each trying to go somewhere
for their own individual purposes?  Such as obtaining food, shelter,
etc. by wage-labor?  They are operating in an environment in which
they have few choices about occupation, and most of the wage-labor
can only be done at certain hours, because of the structure of that
[usually capitalist] society, which includes the fact that most
people sleep at night rather than during the day.

Of course the technology and social structure are setting conditions
that one cannot control for the moment.  At the same time a traffic
jam is a by-product of a lot of individuals trying to make a living
within those conditions, i.e. trying to get to work at the same time.
It would look rather different if there were no engines, or if cities
were planned out with jobs distributed nearer to houses, rather than
at central locations, or if a lot of other things were different. 
But nothing will disappear the various people each trying to get a
living.

Sociology may completely ignore the individuals, but sociology is not
the only valid way to look at things, and I'm no sociologist.  This
is a problem I have with some varieties of marxist analysis - where
are the individuals?  the actual people?  

BTW, I was no red diaper baby, and I don't know everything about
marxism yet. 

Lisa  





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