[lbo-talk] Theory Hotline

[Cliff Staples]

>
>Wait. I thought that the discourse about rocks, dinosaurs, and galaxies 
>was contingent upon power relations and the imperatives of the privileged 
>classes-- their classification schemes were developed by white males 
>through the distancing strategies demanded by the need to preserve and 
>extend hegemony over the natural, i.e., more female world. But as you 
>note, many of these things, which we are expected to regard as "real," are 
>accessible only through the texts generated by privilege, and can be 
>contemplated directly only through gatekeeping hegemonic institutions 
>(observatories, multi-million-dollar telescopes, museums). So dinosaurs 
>and galaxies did not actually _exist_ until signifiers were issued to 
>represent them.

I'll play along and take you seriously... you can go there if you want, but 
it isn't necessary.  You can except the notion of social construction and 
assume it's done democratically-- as did the American Pragmatists like G. 
H. Mead, but to a lesser extent, Dewey.  it was wishful thinking, in my 
view, but that was their call.