a "product" is nothing more than a materialization of interpersonal relationships. There is NO SUCH THING as a non-social product. Likewise, there is NO SUCH THING as a purely social (i.e., non-embodied, non-materialized) relationship. There are only different forms of embodied sociality, some more intense, some less so; some alienating (in the sense of trying to cut the product out of its context and ignore or demean the ties and productive relationships it embodies), some less so. Capitalism is the advent of a form of alienation which assumes you are a radically private individual with *no* inherent tie to anyone else whose product suits your needs, and yours alone; only later on is an exchange established between other persons based on objects that are isolated from their productive, i.e., social, contexts.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: product versus social network
Date: 2007-05-29 05:53 pm (UTC)a "product" is nothing more than a materialization of interpersonal relationships. There is NO SUCH THING as a non-social product. Likewise, there is NO SUCH THING as a purely social (i.e., non-embodied, non-materialized) relationship. There are only different forms of embodied sociality, some more intense, some less so; some alienating (in the sense of trying to cut the product out of its context and ignore or demean the ties and productive relationships it embodies), some less so. Capitalism is the advent of a form of alienation which assumes you are a radically private individual with *no* inherent tie to anyone else whose product suits your needs, and yours alone; only later on is an exchange established between other persons based on objects that are isolated from their productive, i.e., social, contexts.
Brilliant. Thank you.