[lbo-talk] Romance of the Two Kingdoms

[Alan Rudy]

I've not had an experience this intimate but run into it quite regularly
with my students.  Somewhere between a Progressive reliance on Experts and
CB's accusations about the lists superiority complex must lie a way of
dealing with delusional anti-parties.  What I am least prepared to deal with
is folks - that you've just described on the "right" and Doug has described
on the "left" - for whom history, data, complexity and structured arguments
hold no sway.  I know Carrol et al. argue for political triage, only trying
to work on/with those who are swayable, given the times at least, but as a
number of people regularly show a great deal of our lives is bound up in the
one massive, hallucinatory anti-party of the present... and, somehow,
administrators expect me to produce learning objectives and assessment tools
to prove that I'm teaching sociological knowledge and critical learning?
My apoliogies for the "throwing up my hands" moment, I'm grading essays...
Alan

On Fri, Mar 26, 2010 at 11:37 AM, Dwayne Monroe <dwayne.monroe at gmail.com>wrote:


> We were outside of Los Angeles when the drugs took hold.
>
> And by "drugs" I mean the realization that the moment itself, the
> entire thing, the whole apparatus, the very carbon altered air we
> breathe is one massive, hallucinatory anti-party.  It looks like
> ordinary life: lawns and giggling kids and bats and nuclear missile
> silos and sexy lasses.  But the real is slipping away, "like tears
> lost in rain".
>
> My friend, my colleague, my old mentor -- a sweet, super-sized, Santa
> Claus-y kind of guy who carries an automatic pistol everywhere, "just
> in case" (and I've got to be fair to my gun carrying bro...there was
> indeed one moment on the road when that damn piece probably saved our
> asses) turned to me and said "A.) BMWs should be clean.  We can't
> greet the angels with a dirty ride. Let's get this over-priced bitch
> to a car wash.  And B.) Obama is a socialist man!  He's taking America
> away from its core ideals...he's taking us away from FREE ENTERPRISE
> and towards some bull Soviet style shit!"
>
> My reply was subtle and as gentle as a baby's kiss: "Are you a fucking
> tea partier.  Is that your thing now?!  Jesus, get a grip.  The
> insurance companies -- the fucking capitalist insurance companies mind
> you -- love the 'reform' bill.  They love it the way a rat loves
> granola wrapped in peanut butter.  Their love should tell you that
> your TP shouts about 'socialism' are wrong, off, and just wrong."
>
> So the argument began, like several other before with other friends,
> frenemies, associates and Facebookists -- liberals too excited,
> conservatives too mad.
>
> He retorted.  Nonsense talking points taken from right-wing blogs.  It
> wasn't long before the birth certificate question made its triumphal
> reappearance.
>
> But this time, my mind drifted from the conversation, I had an
> out-of-body experience or some synaptic equivalent.  My god, I
> thought, there are layers within layers.
>
> The illusion of 'reform' clashes with the illusion of 'government
> takeover' and Armageddon for freedom.  Two kingdoms are at war in a
> vaporous world of contending dreams.
>
>
>
> Meanwhile, on Earth....
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> .d.
> ___________________________________
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>

-- 
*********************************************************
Alan P. Rudy
Dept. Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work
Central Michigan University
124 Anspach Hall
Mt Pleasant, MI 48858
517-881-6319