[lbo-talk] Nature, Alienation, Mediation, Values... oh, and "Natives, " just for fun

lbo83235 lbo83235 at gmail.com
Wed Jul 6 11:54:42 PDT 2011


On Jul 6, 2011, at 7:15 PM, Dennis Redmond wrote:


> Fanon did outstanding work, but his model of intellectual commitment
> amidst wartime solidarity has some internal contradictions -- most
> notably, its militarized masculinity. As an exile from colonial-era
> Martinique in occupied Algeria, he had limited insight into Algeria's
> anti-colonial mobilizations, into its strengths and also its
> limitations. It could be that the Arab Spring is the long-delayed
> answer to those contradictions -- a rebellion against the corrupt
> postcolonial elites which cloaked their neocolonial thievery for
> decades, by dressing themselves in the garb of national liberators.

I like the final observation on the recent developments across Arab-majority regions, although I think one can find earlier hints of something(s) similar elsewhere.

But the first part of this is pretty frustrating. It's patronising and dismissive to respond only at the meta-level like this, rather than to the text at hand: it just recapitulates and reinscribes precisely the anodyne safe distance of "G&Ts and theory behind the mosquito nets" over which Fanon seeks (with full justice, and with my full support) to smear his Native scent. Is that aggressive? I sure fucking hope so. Did you not get enough of that from the original passage?

I suppose the passage from Fanon - or any other passage from him - can be "taken" (trying to invoke those rape-of-the-lock resonances) as "internally contradictory" theory. One *can* "take" it that way. Alternatively, one can struggle to imaginatively identify with the racially oppressed lives he powerfully invokes, and begin to deal with them, viscerally, if only at the kind of alienating remove to which most of us are subject, unless and until we take active steps to engage and expose ourselves far outside our comfort zones (read the Fanon passage again if that doesn't make intuitive sense). Fanon's texts can also be heard as predominantly narrative in scope - or as invocation. (Proof: Joanna heard this passage that way.) Even better: as prophecy and poetry: the poetry of the oppressed. With respect, I find irritating a response that doesn't evince an openness - let alone an attunement - to the depths of grief and displacement, the deep and seething indignity, and the sharp-elbowed but magnanimous graciousness Fanon shows. ("I'm prepared to forgive you for what your forefathers did, as long as you're prepared to stop treating me like a fucking n*gger.") I struggle to see someone who doesn't approach a passage like the one I posted with something verging on awe, and with deep humility, as a comrade. Like I said: step away from the computer. (Dear god: What does it take to get a white man to stop typing? Somebody please tell me. And if being called a white man bothers you, then get up on it and become more black. But I mean, like, fast, man. Clock's fucking ticking. CO2 is running up hard on 400 ppm. We need to *do* this, now. You in?)

All of which is to say: the blacker I realise I am, the whiter this list seems to get.

"Internal contradictions"? Go break bread with someone from the Landless Peoples' Movement at a strategy-and-tactics session on a Wednesday night in a dimly lit community hall, trying to figure out how to mobilise poor people for COP17. Then tell me about the "internal contradictions" of militarised masculinity. My brothers are *pissed*. Are you with us or not?

PS: A concluding hypothesis: The closer barbarism gets, the more we resist a narrative identification with those who are even more oppressed than we are, because the heightened stakes become increasingly undeniable, and the reality of our own powerlessness becomes increasingly overwhelming. SSRIs can only take us so far. "Theory" feels safe, even comforting, by contrast - right up to the moment when they break down your door and put your kids in a privatised facility. As an economic "input."

NB: All of the above is intended narratively. Neither philosophical binaries nor any name-calling is intended or implied. No animals were harmed in the production of this email. (Okay, I squashed an ant who crawled across my trackpad, but motherfucker had it coming... may he rest in peace.)



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