> Yes, there is something almost scholastic about these publications. Many
> Marxists/communists/socialists will argue for the need to advance
> theory. I wonder. It seems much more important to reintegrate ideas
> about commons, sharing, pride in work, communal responsiblity, etc. in
> our shared sensibility than anything else. I would be much happier with
> a socialist "alternative" type paper -- that talked about all of life --
> cooking, sports, jobs, relationships, books, music, ...than with another
> grave digging expedition in the socialist annals.
Well, we need both. The decay of praxis in the US also affects theory -- litcritter jobs are as scarce as overt domestic dissent to the Terror War. There are hundreds of panels at the MLA this year, and only one deals with a videogame culture (never mind the fact that videogames net larger annual revenues than the cinema). Etc.
I'm currently brainstorming about a Web-zine of some sort, which would do what the NLR and other official Left publications just can't seem to do -- bridge the divide between marginalized activists and quarantined theorists, by taking on multinational culture on its own Web-turf. Here are some scattered ideas:
http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/Webzine.html
Comments/critiques welcome!
-- DRR