Literacy, Intellectuals, and the Left

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Tue Apr 10 14:02:17 PDT 2001


At 04:35 PM 4/9/01 -0700, Joanna wrote:
>I mention this because there are times when being unable to understand
>something theoretical has less to do with its theoretical nature than with
>missing the experience upon which that theory is based.

Ditto. I had a somewhat similar experience as a TA at Rutgers (in sociology) when I tried - to no avail - convince undergrads about deskilling. They only person who actually knew what I was talking about was a woman who worked as a checkout clerk and had a first hand experience in deskilling. The rest of the class - mostly fratboys, suburaban fatheads, and assorted social climbers from New Jersey who never had a real job - either had no clue what I was talking about or denounced it as 'communist propaganda.'

BTW, taylorism would never be possible without the academe.

wojtek



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