I was just thinking about dear Judy and how disappointed I was with her book, *The Psychic Life of Power*, the first chapter to which I wrote a short retort. I thought she was full of crap, and I still do, but I still retain my willingness to listen to a blow-by-blow account of her introduction and first chapter --- a necessary stance since I did not understand a great deal of what she said. I still want to know what she offers that someone like Paulo Freire does not in his *Pedagogy of the Oppressed*, which, while not a flawless work of social theorizing, at least is more approachable than Butler's work and appears to have been put to practical use.
So when are you going to give us an introduction to B's book that explains some of her terms (e.g. "trope", which annoys me no end) that us non-pomo-literate, tough-minded empiricists have trouble with?
Frankly, I think most of the masses are a lost cause for any sort of radical social transformation (I like Adorno's advice about not romanticizing the "splendid underdogs"). Too damaged by too many years of lies, though some are rehabilable, as Raphael Ezekiel has pointed out in his book *The Racist Mind*. Better to concentrate on limiting the damage and building new awareness bit-by-bit over many, many years, I think.
Bill