[lbo-talk] "master's tools" (was po-mo prince)

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Tue Dec 9 10:30:12 PST 2003


kelley at pulpculture.org wrote:


>For we have, built into all of us, old blueprints of expectation
>and response, old structures of oppression, and these must be altered at
>the same time as we alter the living conditions which are a result of those
>structures. For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's
>house.

So in this context, the master's tools are the internalized structures of repression, which of course couldn't be expected to contribute much to liberation (though the structures are really the work produced by those tools, not the tools themselves, to split hairs). But taken out of this context, and in the sense it's usually quoted, the quote is used against math, philosophy, political parties, and lots of other potentially good things.

Doug



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