…is this; when the parents of these children purchase these toys and play with them, they are in essence cleaning up something that already exists. Once something is acted out, it is over. I know this to be true in the case of my siblings and myself playing with BB guns, toy Derringers, toy pistols, bows and arrows, knives, and stick horses. We acted these things out and thus we avoided using these things as adults. In the case of scientific toys, one might become a teacher of science or never enter the scientific field at all. If one manages to hang on to the scientific content of the mind, then one might benefit from these things in one’s youth. I tend to think the television down plays interests in these areas preventing many from entering these fields.
Braverman undertook his research on the foundation of a wide ranging set of relevant jobs: apprentice coppersmith, steel-fabricating layout man, pipe fitter, sheet metal worker, freight car repairman, structural steel fitter. He went on to be co editor on the monthly American Socialist and to be editor and manager of two publishing houses, including Monthly Review Press. Metal working, office work, and publishing are all areas in which scientific and technological innovation have had great impact: Fred Taylor, the father of 'scientific management' began his work in the cutting and handling of metals, and office automation is synonymous with IBM. So, when Braverman talks about deskilling jobs in high-technology industries, he is not talking about worlds deduced from Hegel, Husserl or Frankfurt. Nor is he concentrating on the experience of work, a la Working for Ford, Work, Working, or The Seventh Man He is demystifying the mediations — how capitalist ideology becomes a material force in the machines and procedures of work. What it's like to work in these places is powerfully implicit in his prose, but the argument is about the job itself. Similarly, although he does not write about workers' struggles, his analysis clarifies their bases and justifications.
HARRY BRAVERMAN’S LABOUR AND MONOPOLY CAPITAL REVIEWED BY ROBERT M. YOUNG
