I brought up in class last week a question I was hoping to get resolved. Mark did address it but I think the consensus we came to was that the problem is, perhaps, or at least for now, irresolvable. The question was how we can we resolve the tension between capital’s possible fantasy of wanting to entirely expunge the worker from the process of production and at the same time capital’s reliance upon the worker.
Something that, to me, pointed in the direction of at least a start to this resolution was Robins’ & Webster’s mention of the “labor of consumption” (116). I personally would like to talk more about this concept and see what meanings we can bring out of it. I think it might speak to re-skilling. Maybe.
Considering the (dialectical?) relationship between production and consumption, I envisage capital’s ultimate fantasy as one in which the laboring workforce has been done away with but there is still the maintenance of a “consumptive workforce.” And it is here that I am feebly attempting to use this concept of the labor of consumption.
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I think you're right about capital's fantasy, but I wonder what you mean by "resolution" as it pertains to us. The tension you speak of...it is a lunacy that capital creates for itself (its essential lunacy, no?).
Do you mean for us to find opportunities for resistance/disruption within that tension?
I'm not sure if this will speak to your point, but what I find most alarming about the turn toward productive consumption is that the "hand" of capital becomes less apparent, and therefore more difficult to disrupt.
Am I anywhere near where you were headed with this question?
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