[FRA:] Marcuse question

[FREDWELFARE at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/25/2006 11:35:48 AM Eastern Standard Time,  
kenneth.mackendrick at utoronto.ca writes:

competitive consumption. We buy our  identities.



In DofE, the statement is made that our ego, in the Kantian sense of unity  
of apperception, is the product of, as well as the condition for, material  
existence..."it is extended and contracted as the prospects of economic  
self-sufficiency and productive ownership extend and contract from generation to  
generation." (p87, Cumming, trans)  This statement is made in the context  of an 
argument that reason can be a mediation or a force, and hence not a value  
orientation, and that identity does not matter since all that is happening  is 
precise organization no matter whether by capitalist organizations or teams  of 
Juliettes!  In this context, the relation of identity to  class-conditions or 
even more general economic conditions is denied by  liberalism; the apparent 
individuality is undermined by the planning of  markets.  FrdW