Gramsci Redux

Peter van Heusden pvh at egenetics.com
Wed Oct 18 01:33:28 PDT 2000


On Tue, 17 Oct 2000, Gordon Fitch wrote:
>
> The only way I can see to proceed is to try to establish
> non-coercive relationships and communities at a personal
> level, that is, to create a culture of anarchy (freedom)
> from the ground up.

Ok, but what's going to be the holder of this culture? Where will this culture reside? Who establishes the rules of this culture?

I don't think this way of getting beyond capitalism sufficiently address the 'who will educate the educator' question that Marx directed against Feuerbach.

There's already some of this going on,
> but it's slow work, since many of the most active and
> intelligent people are so bemused by the shiny toys I
> mentioned and tend to overlook the unpleasant side of
> the toy machine, darkened as it is by design.
>

Oh, and this is where I find orthodox Marxism and anarchism to be at their closest - both try and instill a new set of ideas into those who are 'so bemused' (or possess 'false consciousness' in another formulation). Its not that I think that shouldn't be done - its just that I think a lot happens 'under the radar' - a lot is going on in forms of domination and rebellion that don't fit neatly into the domain of consciously articulated ('clear') ideas.

Peter -- Peter van Heusden <pvh at egenetics.com> NOTE: I do not speak for my employer, Electric Genetics "Criticism has torn up the imaginary flowers from the chain not so that man shall wear the unadorned, bleak chain but so that he will shake off the chain and pluck the living flower." - Karl Marx, 1844



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list