05-24-2014, 07:06 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-24-2014, 07:12 AM by FireIceTalon.)
Prostitution is one of the most horrible things women have had to endure historically as an exploited or "other" identity. In capitalist society it is particularly bad because it effects women negatively in two very fundamental ways. The first, and most obvious, is that it reinforces stereotypes that women who participate in such activities are "whores", "sluts", etc. It also has a class element of course, in that most women who engage in prostitution are usually working class. Secondly, they are further degraded by the state when their "job" (which is already an extremely dangerous and undesirable one, yet often economically necessary) is made illegal by said agency. This further reinforces the first way, and is an economic attack on poor and working class women. And it becomes a never ending cycle in the capitalist matrix.
Drugs work in a similar manner I believe. Although there is recreational use, again, I think even this use is due (in many instances) to the pressures that many average people experience from living under a capitalist system. Whether it is working a crappy job for crappy pay and experiencing alienation, or in a more social context such as discrimination or being bullied. Growing up in a broken home. Or any other variety of factors that come along with the system. For a lot of these people the drugs are like a crutch or band aid, to try and make an insane world seem more livable. Now, I'm not advocating or even justifying the use of drugs - it is pretty obvious that they are, by and large, very bad for your health and do nothing to actually solve our problems other than to make us forget about them temporarily. I believe the solution of course lies in eliminating the factors that make many people want to do drugs to begin with. As far as legalizing them goes, it is difficult for me to take such a position one way or the other under a capitalist system. The reason is because keeping them illegal isn't going to stop people from doing them, yet legalizing them isn't going to fix the problems that are the root cause as to why people do them in the first place.
Just my 2 cents.
Drugs work in a similar manner I believe. Although there is recreational use, again, I think even this use is due (in many instances) to the pressures that many average people experience from living under a capitalist system. Whether it is working a crappy job for crappy pay and experiencing alienation, or in a more social context such as discrimination or being bullied. Growing up in a broken home. Or any other variety of factors that come along with the system. For a lot of these people the drugs are like a crutch or band aid, to try and make an insane world seem more livable. Now, I'm not advocating or even justifying the use of drugs - it is pretty obvious that they are, by and large, very bad for your health and do nothing to actually solve our problems other than to make us forget about them temporarily. I believe the solution of course lies in eliminating the factors that make many people want to do drugs to begin with. As far as legalizing them goes, it is difficult for me to take such a position one way or the other under a capitalist system. The reason is because keeping them illegal isn't going to stop people from doing them, yet legalizing them isn't going to fix the problems that are the root cause as to why people do them in the first place.
Just my 2 cents.
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"Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class, made into law for all, a will whose essential character and direction are determined by the economic conditions of the existence of your class." - Marx (addressing the bourgeois)
"Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class, made into law for all, a will whose essential character and direction are determined by the economic conditions of the existence of your class." - Marx (addressing the bourgeois)