"Daniel F. Vukovich" wrote:
>
> Well, Sam, maybe read the chapter?
Hey man, I read it twice. You were the one who accused Samir of not engaging contemporary theory.
> Finally, if we want to have a useful discussion, maybe we should actually
> read or at least cite a few pages (or few lines) of something. If its
> "pomo" you want, maybe some of Frere Jacque's stuff.
OK. Here is some Lyotard. I think these two paragraphs are the whole basis for his argument against "meta-narratives."
"Marxism has not come to an end, but how does it continue? The wrong is expressed through the silence of suffering, through feeling. The wrong results from teh fact that all phrase universes and all their linkages are or can be subordinated tot he sole finality of capital (but is capital a genre?) and judged accordingly.Because this finality seizes upon or can seize upon all phrases, it makes a claim to universality. The wrong done to phrases by capital would then be a universal one. Even if the wrong is not universal (but how can you prove it it's an idea?) the silent feeling that signals a differend remains to be listened to. Responsibility to thought requires it. This is the way in which Marxism has not come to an end, as the feeling of the differend." Lyotard *The Differend: Phrases in Dispute* p171.
But the harm done by capital is not to phrases but to *people*. Phrases refer to the world.
"In contemporary scoiety and culture-- postindustrial society, postmodern-- the question of the legitimation of knowledge is formulated in different terms. THe grand narrative has lost its credibility, regardless of what mode of unification it uses, regardless of whether it is a speculative narrative or a narrative of emancipation.
The decline of the narrative can be seen as an effect of the blossoming techniques and technologies since the Second World War, which has shifted emphais from the ends of action to its means; it can also be seen as an effect of the redeployment of advanced liberal capitalism after its retreat under the protection fo Keynesianism during the period 1930-1960, a renewal that has eliminated the communist alternative and valorized the individual enjoyment of goods and servives. " POstmodern Condition p82-3.
I read this as saying:
Soviet Union=Marxism ~Soviet Union ~Marxism
Given the racist and
> chauvinist screeds about Arabs and Kosovars (or indeed trade unionists!),
> etc one happens to see from time to time, I'd recc "White
> Mythology." Or for some stellar Marxist Theory (socio-philosophical),
> one cant beat Balibar, the Race Nation Class bk with Wallerstein, or the
> short and sweet Philos. of Marx., or Masses, Classes and Ideas. Or hell,
> SA's Eurocentrism bk, which would suit my own interests better. Or Paul
> Smith's Millenial Dreams, which I've put off for far too long. Or some
> recent book on nationalism. Or hell, dont read anything. But no one
> should want to be taken seriously as a critic of either pomo-discourse or
> of the zeit-geist, unless he or she can name names or otherwise betray some
> knowledge of some text.
I agree. There is a lot of good of Marxist theory out there. Some of it written by people on these lists. Try *Beyond Capital* by Mike Lebowitz.
Doug H wrote:
>Really? Marx took the leading bourgeois thinkers of his time - and even
>some minor, risible characters - very seriously. Why shouldn't a
>contemporary Marxist do the same?
In the context of what Amin usually writes about: the political of Africa, refuting Derrida or whoever is not as important, although serious intellectual work is needed (and is being done) to understand and reverse the African catastrophe.
I don't think Foucault or Derrida are bourgeois thinkers though Lyotard certainly is. IMO, the bourgeoise does not really have any decent contemporary thinkers-- the b's publications, The New Republic, The New Criterion,NYRB,Forbes etc are full of mediocrity and repeat the same arguments that were made in Marx's time and long before. The best the bourgeoise have is poor repetition of Hobbes, Locke and Mandeville. Except for Nozick and a few others.
Sam Pawlett