Nathan Newman wrote:
> It was always my experience as well that theory-heads were often good core
> activists as well; my frustration was that in the practical field, they went
> [from] erudite theory in the classroom to an almost atheoretical "just do it"
> activism with relatively little sophistication on discussions of tactics and
> strategy.
One possible explanation. If one does not keep conscious of the ultimate and continuous derivation of theory from practice, it is hard to see the importance of theory to practice, except in an abstract Platonic sense.
> In this they paralleled Foucault in his later years, where he was
> often a good activist but was often engaged without much critical distance -
> his support for the Iranian revolution being one classic example of his
> misguided enthusiasm for action unto itself.
>
> -- Nathan Newman