I can see why forecasts for progressive change always seem to be expressed in geologic time.
One reason for my much-advertised dislike of pedantry and obscurantism is that I think these factors get in the way of using the Web to raise popular consciousness about social issues and spread progressive ideas.
There is a persistent attachment on this list to a false dichotomy: i.e., you're just not being radical unless you either (a) wall yourself off in grad school and spend your life mastering the neo-gnosticism of pomo theory, or (b) express your solidarity by hanging out on a factory-gate picket line or engaging in Alinsky-style neighborhood activism.
I think option "a" is elitism of the worst kind and utterly self-defeating for promoting social change. I think option "b" is ineffectual and outmoded.
Which brings us to option "c" -- cyberspace. All the tiresome hype about the Internet aside, LBOers seem oddly oblivious to the Web's potential for breaking down class and professional barriers and creating a true people's medium for exchange of information and ideas. You can see the beginnings of this right here -- both in the variety of LBO posts and in the fact that many LBOers are on other lists.
But the Web's potential this way will not be fulfilled in the absence of a determined effort to make the truth of radical ideas *more accessible.* Sure, Marx can be complicated, but why focus on the most arcane aspects of the old man's ideas? Marx's moral outrage is easily understandable, as are many of his basic ideas about what's wrong with the world. I think recasting the fundamental concepts of Marx et al. in terms that would connect with contemporary people and stimulate discussion over the Web is one of the most productive lines of activism that can be pursued.
Carl Remick