[lbo-talk] "Theory's Empire," an anti-"Theory" anthology

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Mon May 26 13:11:05 PDT 2008


On May 26, 2008, at 3:44 PM, Avery Ray Colter wrote:


> I think that is where the backlash comes from,
> truly. If we're going to think of the world in
> materialist terms, it seems like you'd get a
> better bead on it from your neighborhood mechanic
> than a Theory professor.

Man, if that isn't a statement produced by pure ideology, I don't know what is. Just what does "your neighborhood mechanic" say about the world? He - and they're, what, 99% male, right? - is quite likely to say that global warming is a hoax, blacks have it too easy, the Ay- rabs wanna do us in, queers should just keep to themselves, etc. And just who do you have in mind as an archetypal "Theory professor"? I know one famous Theory professor who didn't know the difference between monetarism and supply side economics until I told him, but they're likely to be on the correct side of most of the questions that matter. Why should looking at the world from the underside of an automobile make you wiser than someone who reads, writes, and talks for a living?

Doug



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