|
the deskilling of labor is one of the main processes that define capitalist organization. so in the context of capitalism, working people are interchangeable--it's one of the many dehumanizing features of this type of organization of production. deskilling also extends--and increasingly so---into "management"--with computers functioning as a prime enabling device. you could say that deskilling is generalized in the context of large-scale capitalist organizations. to switch rhetorical registers for a sec, that's why it's as fucked up as it is in so many ways.
of course if you want to see in this form of organization some type of mirror of an image you have of natural hierarchy, you'll be inclined to substitute dream-imagery for the effects of this organization and will see in the abstract image "manager" someone who retains a coherent skill set.
in some regions within a given economic sector (those related to software development, say) folk do operate with a discrete skill set on a more-or-less craft basis: but these are exceptions.
it turns out that folk who occupy such positions tend to imagine the entire world in the image of themselves, projecting it laterally to fashion a sense of social distinction, above to project some imaginary ladder they aspire to climb, and below to create a sense of social distance from the lesser beings below. but this is a psychological positioning, not a description of the capitalist order.
maybe that's why working folk who try to get by on minimum wage keep disappearing from this thread even---we are communicating across a medium access to which is class specific to a great extent and so it is a theater of class or status performance and for the performance of status anxieties at the same time.
the cynicism hasn't started yet, btw---it starts when you move from the above to thinking about motives for keeping wages low in these imaginary worlds animated by status anxiety.....no reason to go there when you can do it for yourself.
__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
|