queries

[Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema]

Yes! Maybe not the parts of the left tradition you or I particularly identify
with, but we mustn't forget his most overt political involvement was as a
Dreyfusard, and a strong one. His side won, which is a little unusual for the
left. Partly because it was a substantially bourgeois left, but still and all,
it succeeded in eliminating, pretty much for good (except under Vichy) the
right as a ruling  élite, and crushingly defeated the Church, some of whose
personnel were deported from France under military guard.

Moreover, Durkheim's seemingly purely academic theorizing involved efforts to
consolidate democratic hegemony and provide an intellectual basis for a
secular democratic society. I'm sure if the local hierarchy read THE
ELEMENTARY FORMS OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE, they must have know they were one of
its targets.

Durkheim seems to me a theorist of the left in power in capitalist society. I
think this means we need to recognize the many problems of his work in that
light.

Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema

kelley wrote:


> At 07:50 PM 3/12/01 -0500, Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema wrote:
> >Thank you for introducing this quote from Durkheim, a left theorist (yes)
>
> NO!  which is not to say that he's not worth reading.
>
> kelley