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1. 

   Stephanie McMillan said, 7 months ago

   Subjective Objective
   by admin on October 16, 2012 at 12:01 am Proletarian Theory is a Revolutionary Social Force

   Economy and Class Shape Philosophy

   The prevailing ideas of any social formation correspond to the economic interests of its ruling class.

   Definition:

   Class consciousness: Appropriating the ideas corresponding to one’s class interests.
   A working class person who votes for a bourgeois politician (of whatever party) is submitting to the domination of the enemy. This is not a class conscious act.

   • * *
     The way we understand things as individuals is rooted in our relation to the economy as a whole, combined with the extent of ideological domination we have succumbed to. Was the BP oil spill caused by the innocent accident of a faulty valve, was it caused by bought-off government agencies enabling BP to operate without proper regulations and regard for safety, or was it an inevitable consequence of capitalists’ drive to pillage the planet at the lowest possible cost to themselves? Was the spill no big deal (profit was way up by the following year and BP’s stock price recovered, so all is well), or did it destroy countless lives? Our answers will correspond to a combination of our class position and level of consciousness.

   All human thinking is rooted in our social conditions. Our ideas are, in an overall sense, shaped by the economic system within which we live. Though ideas arise which can affect and challenge the economic structure, and there is some interplay between the two, overall the influence is weighted the other way, with the economic base determining the ideas that arise within a culture.

   Therefore, before we can identify which class a particular philosophy represents and serves, we must identify the class nature of the society in which it arose, and the theory’s role in that historical moment, as well as the class makeup of the society in which it is being used now, and the possible shift in its role. A philosophy or theory (like the class it corresponds to) may have been liberatory at one time but can turn into its opposite in a different historical period.
2. 

   Ms. Ima said, 7 months ago

   Or, was the BP spill caused by ‘environmental activists’ trying to ‘save’ the world by attempting to destroy it? In the end the ‘spill’ was contained and stopped, the Gulf absorbed the oil as food by the organisms that lived there and very little made to the shores. Oil is naturally seepage into the Gulf all the time. The oil was put there by nature, not man made.
   Oil profits are up because of the world demand (and need) for oil. Oil byproducts produce millions of common and life saving products that man uses and needs.
   [A working class person who votes for a bourgeois politician (of whatever party) is submitting to the domination of the enemy. This is not a class conscious act.] Unless it’s a dictatorship where an individual with radical ideas take over and use their power and military to kill ideas other than what fits his world.
3. 

   Night-Gaunt49 said, 7 months ago

   With the last hurricane some more of that “contained” oil made it to shore. Environmental activists had nothing to do with the oil gusher, the oil company BP had everything to do with it along with the other corporations involved. That is the objective truth of the matter.
4. 

   bartbell said, 7 months ago

   And somewhere in the middle of both comments is the truth.

   I do want to thank Steph for putting this side out here to be read and for her dedication and passion to stand up for what she believes in and be heard. I started reading this cartoon about a year ago and in the begining I almost deleted it a few times off my list but kept reading it and although I do not see eye to eye with her I do try to keep an open mind to all paths. I think it is important to hear all sides of an issue and not accept any side as the absolute fact until you have studied them all. Lord knows if you watched MSNBC one day and Fox News the next you would think the same news strory was coming from different planets! And like wih most issues the truth would most likely be somewhere in the middle and not on CNN.

   It does not matter if you side with her, against her or somewhere inbetween I’d hope everyone would take the time to study the world from all sides and form their own conclusions. Open debate within an educated population with out government crackdown or imprisionment is what makes this and most 1st world contries great, it allows the public to make up their own minds and when enough people feel the country is going in the wrong direction they will rise up and make a change for better or worse.
5. 

   Trebuchet said, 7 months ago

   This is good stuff, Stephanie! Keep it up! Ignore the haters and naysayers. Why they continue to follow this strip, only to deride it is beyond me. They must be on some capitalist’s propaganda payroll.

   @negative commenters

   “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you will join us, and the world will be live as one.”
6. 

   Christinecedar said, 7 months ago

   Thank you Stephanie, I believe that your comics and your comments are great, and appreciate learning something new as well as interesting with your Proletarian Theory lessons.
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