[Marxism] Prison guards (was: Police unions etc.)

[mlause at cinci.rr.com]

Having a devil of a time with my email server in the present heat wave 
here...or I might have respodned more fully.

Paulson complains that I deny the possibility of making "meaningful 
distinctions" (I think that was his term) between social workers or 
teachers and cops or soldiers (which I did not do), but he and others 
then smudge cops and soldiers, ignoring the fact that they were making 
an issue of the latter.  

There are a wide variety of roles played within any of these 
occupations in the U.S., but especially the last two.  Most of the 
people I know who've gone into those two over the past five years are 
people of color or women.  They don't enter it to murder babies or club 
immigrants.  They are seeking a decent way to make a living and are 
also drawn by the much touted ideology of service...and we ignore that 
to the detriment of our efforts.

Does it change the nature and social role of those institutions?  Of 
course not.

But neither do these features of the institutions particularly 
distinguish them from education or social work.  You can find 
individuals going into these areas with purely authoritarian souls, but 
most go into them with the same  people going into these areas  strikes 
such a reaction.  In the end, though, they are repressive institutions 
that maintain the class hierarchies and the social order.  It tickles 
me that pointing it out evokes any kind of protests.

Of course, if you were trying to involve social workers or teachers in 
political action, you'd not want to begin by denouncing them.

Same with soldiers.

The comparison is absolutely 100% legitimate as far as that goes....

So why the shit storm?  Because the Left is comfortable dealing with 
social workers and teachers.  And not with soldiers.

More's the pity.

Solidarity!
Mark L.