[lbo-talk] USA 2003

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

At 5:17 PM -0400 9/16/03, Doug Henwood wrote:
>Brian Siano wrote:
>
>>Empowering? Frankly, literary theory strikes me as one of the most 
>>_crippling_ things ever devised. I've rarely seen anyone with a 
>>background in literary theory acquire power, or even demonstrate an 
>>ability to deliver power to those who need it most.
>
>According to Slavoj Zizek in Tarrying with the Negative:
>
>>Prior to becoming a revolutionary, Pol Pot was a professor at a 
>>French lycée in Phnom Penh, known for his subtle readings of 
>>Rimbaud and Mallarmé.  Abimael Guzman, "presidente Gonzalo," the 
>>leader of the Senderistas, is a philosophy professor whose 
>>preferred authors are Hegel and Heidegger and whose doctoral thesis 
>>was on Kant's theory of space.

Pol Pot was able to stay in power for only three and a half years, 
from 1975 to 1978; Abimael Guzman never succeeded in taking state 
power.  In contrast to the literary and philosophical revolutionists, 
Fidel Castro, a trained lawyer, has managed to remain in power since 
1959.  Alas, reading law may be a superior preparation for a 
statesman than reading literature or philosophy.
-- 
Yoshie

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