[lbo-talk] the postmodern prince

Brian Siano siano at mail.med.upenn.edu
Tue Dec 9 08:19:16 PST 2003


Charles Brown wrote:


>>Audre Lourde wrote: "you don't tear down massa's house using massa's
>>
>>
>tools."
>
>
>>Marx relied on the same flawed understanding of identity that created
>>capitalism in an effort to undo it.
>>
>>
>
>Doug H: I think that Audre Lorde aphorism is one of the most overquoted
>things around. Of course you can dismantle the master's house with
>the master's tools, if you use the right tools correctly.
>
I wouldn't call it "overquoted." I'd call it "imbecile." I've heard it every so often, but I could _never_ understand what Lorde was saying. (Assuming the quote's properly sourced. I have no idea who said it first.)

Most metaphors have to work on their most literal level. And since we're using terms like "master" and "massa" and "master's house," we're obviously talking about slaves here. And we're also talking about slaves who, for _some_ reason or another, want to take apart the plantation owner's house. (The idea that liberated slaves could live communally in the big house didn't occur to them, apparently.) Taking apart a house is a BIG job, and it requires tools, like crowbars, sledgehammers, pry-bars, maybe some horses and yokes to pull walls down, pliers to get the nails out, etc. So where the hell are the slaves going to FIND these tools? I mean, they're SLAVES. They don't HAVE anything. And the nearest tools that they could possibly get their hands on are the ones the former Master owns.

Are they supposed to _not use_ these tools? Are they supposed to pull down a plantation house with their _bare hands_, and risk injury, mutilation, lung disease from plaster dust, or tetanus? Or, are they expected to go over to the plantation next door and say, "Listen, we want to tear down the Master's house, but we're not supposed to use our Master's tools. Can we borrow yours?"

Now, I'm sure someone'll try to "explain" that the quote is just a metaphor. It's meant to say something about how you can't use, say, capitalism to dismantle capitalism, or somesuch. But if the metaphor doesn't make sense, then it can't be used to suppor a different point.

Man, I _hate_ stupid metaphors.



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