“I refuse to accept replaceability because it conflicts with my politics” is hardly a fair representation of his point, for a start.
I think his point here along the lines of that although if you don’t become a banker someone else will, if you do become a banker, nobody will become a political activist in your place (and for various reasons it’s extremely hard to be both a banker and a socialist activist). And if you’re a successful political activist, you increase the chance that society will be reformed so that there aren’t a load of bankers.
80k makes much of replaceability: “the job will exist whatever you do.” This is stronger than the claim that someone else will become a banker; rather, it states that there will always be bankers, that there will always be exploitation.
Mills doesn’t argue against replaceability, he says that he can’t accept replaceability because it implies there will always be bankers and exploitation.
His actual quote is saying that replaceability goes away if the whole system can be changed. Your original paraphrase makes it sound like he has an ideological precommitment to the idea that if you don’t become a banker, nobody else will.
“I refuse to accept replaceability because it conflicts with my politics” is hardly a fair representation of his point, for a start.
I think his point here along the lines of that although if you don’t become a banker someone else will, if you do become a banker, nobody will become a political activist in your place (and for various reasons it’s extremely hard to be both a banker and a socialist activist). And if you’re a successful political activist, you increase the chance that society will be reformed so that there aren’t a load of bankers.
From the source:
Mills doesn’t argue against replaceability, he says that he can’t accept replaceability because it implies there will always be bankers and exploitation.
His actual quote is saying that replaceability goes away if the whole system can be changed. Your original paraphrase makes it sound like he has an ideological precommitment to the idea that if you don’t become a banker, nobody else will.
Ok; I’ll replace the paraphrase with the quote.