Re: Biological Reductionism/Ideology

Alan, your message is perhaps a little cryptic.  I am not sure what  is "bad ideology" (as distinct I suppose from "good" ideology).  Perhaps you may want to clarify.  

Regarding the Nazi genocides - of Jews, of Gypsies, of  homosexuals, and the systematic elimination of all communist  opposition to the regime - I think it had  more to do with the effects  of the concrete experience of the crisis of capitalism, the tearing of  the social fabric through the effects of unfettered free enterprise....   Fascism and Nazism were differential responses - with different  specificities in Italy and Germany - taken by the 'self-protecting  society' to the utopian logic of a seemingly unstoppable 'self- regulating market' (to use Polanyi's concepts). Something surely  similar - despite its specific differences - took place in Rwanda (cf.  Mamdani's attempts to understand those 'massacres'), as well as  in India (the communal violencia of the the 1990s in particular).   One may extend the similarity to the ethnic cleansing in the  Balkans, that we read about so much.  One motivation behind  pointing out these geographically different, - and yet perhaps not so  'geographically different' if we seek to subsume these different  spaces under the category of the 'periphery' of the world system  (and hence also 'peripheral', not central?!) along with the somewhat  categorical reductionism it itself entails- uncompromising  instances, of apparently ununderstandble practices of genocidal  violence, is to highlight the logic of capital accumulation and its  uneven geographical development, one of the effects of which is to  'unplug' large parts of the world economy from the world supply  system (to use Arrighi's terms).  One outcome of this unplugging  process is to make redundant these same geographies.  One  response to this redundancy - the concrete effects of which are felt  on the livelihood of people  living in communities that experienced  'incorporation' into the world economy during the course of their  earlier history- is violence arising out of the competition for  resources rendered scarcer by the unplugging.  How else may one  account for these acts of senseless and vindictive violences?  By  saying that the oppressed take on the role of oppressors?  By  saying that people in some parts of the world are 'naturally' more  animalistic than people in other parts of the world? By arguing that  'bad ideology' is at work?  Regarding the last, the 'bad ideology'  that you refer to is surely not  unconnected with the Enlightenment  Project itself, the fetishization of 'progress' (cf. the powerful  critiques of the concept of progress in the various works of Walter  Benjamin) and the religious faith in instrumental reason (cf. the  critique of Weber), and the continued exercise of this faith ('reason  riding piggy-back on capital', to use Chatterji's words).

I apologize for this lengthy response.  My shorter response would  have been that perhaps by 'bad ideology' you refer to the working of  Zweckrationalitat in the context of the Nazi genocides.

In another sense I think the pointer you make to ideology is  correct, but perhaps for different reasons.  Ideology is effective, that  is say, ideology has material effects, but its effectivity is to be  'measured' in relation to the ways in which it helps reproduce the  conditions and relations of production necessary for the endless  accumulation of capital. What if all of us are always "in" ideology  (as Althusser argued)?  What implications does this have for the  worldwide struggle? 

Apologies again for the length of this response.  TKG.


From:           	"Alan Spector" <spectors@netnitco.net>
Copies to:      	"WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK" <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
Subject:        	Re: S J Gould on new genome findings 
Date sent:      	Mon, 19 Feb 2001 21:46:55 -0600

The Nazis attempted to carry out their biological reductionist theories, and
thousands of people died in medical experiments and forced breeding placed.

But I would argue that more people were killed as a result of the "bad
ideology" of the Nazis than from those gruesome, inhuman experiments. It was
the ideology that justified not only those experiments, but much of the war
effort that killed tens of millions.


Alan Spector

========================================
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard N Hutchinson" <rhutchin@U.Arizona.EDU>
To: "Boris Stremlin" <bc70219@binghamton.edu>
Cc: "WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK" <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2001 9:40 PM
Subject: Re: S J Gould on new genome findings


> Boris-
>
> Perhaps my message was too condensed.
>
> My point is that if Gould is right, we have nothing to fear from genetic
> engineering.  Personally, I'm still very worried about what it might lead
> to -- I'm afraid the reductionist biology agenda might be much more
> dangerous than simply a bad ideology.
>
> RH
>
>
> On Mon, 19 Feb 2001, Boris Stremlin wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 19 Feb 2001, Richard N Hutchinson wrote:
> >
> > > I only hope Gould is right, but unfortunately capitalism is pouring
> > > billions into the search for traits and behaviors encoded in genes,
and
> > > the reductionist approach may bear ominous fruit...
> >
> > Three quick points -
> >
> > 1) The finding that the number of genes is approximately 1/4 to 1/5 the
> > size previously estimated is not Gould's, but that of the "reductionist
> > establishment"; he is merely commenting on its obvious significance.
> >
> > 2) the fact that reductionism may bear ominous fruit in some cases is no
> > reason to accept a reductionist world-view.
> >
> > 3) "capitalism" has also poured billions into neo-classical economics,
to
> > ominous ends in some circumstances.
> >
> > --
> > Boris Stremlin
> > bc70219@binghamton.edu
> >
> >
>