Doug Henwood wrote:
> Gar Lipow nominates activism as the antidote to all those disabling
> oppositions.
Not the antidote, but one place where it is possible to see the contradiction in seeing them as oppositions.
> Yes, but the whole idea of activism as an antidote to theoretical isolation
> reproduces the division it aims to undermine. A few
> years ago, I was on a panel about economic development in NYC, and most of
> my colleagues were hot on stimulating small business. I piped up to say
> that for the most part, small business jobs pay less, offer few benefits
> and less training, are typically more dangerous and more volatile. For
> saying this, I was denounced by an activist for exhibiting the "paralysis
> of analysis."
So he was being foolish (or dishonest) in rejecting analysis. But surely you don't intend to leap to other extreme and reject activism? It seems that you are ignoring my main point which is that these "oppositions" need more integration -- but are not contradictions which needs synthesis. I consider dialectic a powerful heuristic in certain circumstances. But what I am denying is that every problem is a contradiction which can be resolved through a dialectical process. No matter how big your hammer, the world does not consist entirely of nails. With the possible exception of pomo/marxism I am arguing the most of your pairs are not opposites which need to reconciled but parallel trends which need to be integrated.
In essence you are introducing another pair -- analysis/ action. (Please no one bring up the term "praxis".) Again I suggest these are not contradictory. We need to do both and integrate them together. Why do I insist on "integration" rather than "synthesis"? Because in a left context, the connotation of integration is bringing together people, processes and things which should never have been separated in the first place. In that same context, "synthesis" connotes the reconciliation of opposites, the resolution of a conflict.
The only reason I excluded pomo/marxisim is I don't know enough about pomo to know whether there is a real conflict with marxism or not.