I've only browsed through some of the posts, but I think I'm with Doug all the way.
Most on this list know that capitalism is a shitty system, and that accordingly looking for truth and beauty unspoiled in any of its institutions is at best very silly. The only sensible way is to judge in terms of what can be expected at this time in this place under this capitalism. EXCEPT: There is a persistent tendency to assume that the University should be a blessed place, untouched by the dire finger of capitalism, and that if one can point out that it is, horrors, capitalists; that its faculty are, horrors, just people earning their living under capitalism and that many of them (as should be taken for granted) are neither heroes nor geniuses born with an instinctive hatred of capitalism, horrors, then the university and its students and its faculty are damned to perdition.
In terms of what can be reasonably expected, we have a fucking good higher education system in the u.s. which is why it is under attack. It has been, given this context, a fucking good institution for a century. It has had better and worse days, but it has just incidentally, in producing people like those on this list, also been a seedbed of opposition to capitalism, and in the various student uprisings not increasing, in which students are using the intellectual tools they gained in that house of horrors to challenge it and in doing so to be moving towards challenging capitalism itself.
Fuck kvetching at faculty and colleges. It's fucking stupid.
Carrol
-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of Doug Henwood Sent: Sunday, December 04, 2011 6:50 PM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: [SPAM_ISU] :Re: [lbo-talk] posh as fuck
On Dec 4, 2011, at 7:41 PM, Michael Smith wrote:
> I thought the point JH was making was a rather
> different one, namely that the the previous Uni
> system was anything but socially transformative;
> quite the contrary in fact. Which raises the question,
> just how worthwhile is it to defend such an institution?
>
> A broader question is whether the Left should spend any
> time, in general, trying to 'defend' things.
Go tell it to all the students occupying streets & buildings over tuition increases.
Since Rohatyn first insisted on tuition at CUNY, the bourgeoisie has been very clear on its higher ed strategy: make it more expensive. What do they know that you don't?
Doug ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk