[lbo-talk] Butler on Derrida
I find it entertaining but not very important. I can't recall now Justin's exact formula, but I believe it was something like this. Bertrand Russell also rather sharply distinguished his social commentary from his work in philosophy and mathematics. I don't recall any political or social commentary in _Human Knowledge_. And there wasn't much formal philosophy in (for instance) his _Unpopular Essays_ (title from memory).
Carrol
^^^^
CB: Years ago , when I asked Angela Davis about doing philosophy she suggested examining the relationship between music and philosophy. I mentioned this in a letter to Justin, and he sent me a tape of Ma Rainey songs, including "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom ". Angela has written a book on Ma Rainey Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday, and the blues so lets do philosophy at the juke joint in Black Bottom, with the guide that comedic logic :>) is superior to grandeloquent logic :>( .
Recall:
With the this ( or the that) philosophical approach maybe we might find play that women of color , lesbian and thespian, find fun ? We learned from Dido. Now we will learn from Bessie Smith.
We need a party of a new type, a mardi gras of the people, a Detroit cabaret. Communists cannot rally workers to revolution with the classical dullness. We want sweet blues. Lets overcome sobriety, even as revolutionary seriousness has won so much.
This would be in the spirit of the Boston Tea Party - a masquerade ball that crossdressers could enjoy. White men dressed as Red men, Sisters With Voices, dressed in Black and joys, and swimming in the harbor. It'll be a Mardi Gras of the People.
When we have everybody laughing and rolling in the aisles, having a roaring good time, dancing (everyone wiggling their hips) and singing, reading poetry and rapping until the wee hours of the morning, we take off our masks and reveal ourselves as philosophers, serious funmakers.
Our new comrades in revelry will say I want to learn how we do this.
Then we could discuss a few paradoxes , why the insides the outside in this Cline bottle; and show how they are contradictions and quote Hegel's craggly melodies, putting all to sleep perchance to dream , of idealism and materialism.
Then wake up the next morning and prepare a feast; and plan a yearlong holiday of this party of a new type, this comedic mode of seduction. And read Engels' Socialism: Utopian and Scientific. Keep doing it and keep doing it; and change it based on what women want.
Vive Jacques , Le Moor! Only Death is immortal. Vote No on E !