>>> Rob Schaap wrote
>>>From Lyotard, I 'learn' (scare quotes are in too - I keep my finger on the
pulse, y'know) that all is *bricolage*>>>
>>>>The bricoleur metaphor is originally Levi-Strauss in _Les Pensee Sauvage_ . I think another metaphor for the agent of cultural production might be the housewife.
and Rob said
>>>(b) of such an order it han't noticed nobody
ever changed the world with bloody ironic game-playing, >>>
>>>>to which Charles says: Yes, I have a big problem with this. I just haven't seen the new style revolutionaries out there trying to change the world >>>>
>>>Rob:
(c) of such an
order it has no referant (d) of such an order it had better constitute
practice in itself because there's now nothing meaningful outside itself,
and (e) of such an order that nobody's gonna be able to emancipate
themselves even if it weren't useless toss, because they couldn't begin to
understand it - awright, at least I can't).>>>
>>>>Charles: Ha, ha, ha , ha, ha. Good one, Rob.>>>>
>>>Rob continues:
As for the historicity of the wage relation, on the other hand ...
>> coupled with denunciations of the reformist left as:
>>
>> "extremely eloquent in elite debates... entirely without
>> troops when the lecture is over. Its class-based analysis
>> appeals neither to the racism/sexism/homophobia crowd
>> nor to the self-images of most Americans."
>
>This is not a criticism of the reformist left of which Alterman is a
>representative. It is another criticism of the RSH crowd. And it is a
>criticism of the masses. The reformist left are the knights in shining
>armour here.
Well, I admit I didn't go along with this bit. I thought the reformists didn't have any troops because they'd deserted the ones they used to have. They have, in fact,chucked class out the window, and when you do that, an awful lot of black, female and (I suspect) homosexual people go with it. As, by the way, do most white heterosexual men. Class ain't good politics precisely because the reformists shut up about it two decades ago - effectively forcing oppressed people to fall back on equally valid but less politically potent identities (by which I'm alluding to numerical and potentially political economic might). Class politics that ignored, say, women, weakened itself in terms of its own legitimating banner, but gender politics without class seeks to unite opposing interests (which it only can by way of the individualising 'super-mum-succeeds-in-business' hegemony we see in mainstream feminism today - I can cite Australian evidence - am I wrong on the US evidence?). As Albert and Hahnel said, these categories are inextricably integrated: without reference to all of the other 'pillars of the totality', no category can stand!>>>
>>>Sounds good to me , Rob>>>>
>>>Rob:
I'm prepared to be told that I'm not just missing the textual context but
also the cultural context - if so, please disregard foregoing diatribe -
which was at least a lot shorter than my last one.>>>
>>>>Charles: But you got a lot of the content>>>
Charles