----- Original Message ----- From: "Dissenting Wren" <dissentingwren at yahoo.com>
I'm listening to it, nearing the end, but all I can think is "FML, do we academic marxists always come off as preening, pretentious, self-satisfied, egoists?"
-------------- I didn't think it was that bad. Loose thoughts.
Very academic, but that's to be expected.
Useful for just a little review of Bolivia, Oaxaca, Tunisia, Egypt.
Wordy and repetitious, but that's to be expected.
He talks about "new principles" but I don't really see that he gets what those are. For example, these revolutions are happening NOT in developed economies, & is this an aspect of neo-liberal development that changes the classic Marxist distinctions?
Also, talks about "the future in the present" but there's an underlying tow of the past on all this, just because it seems the over arching concern is "how does this fit withing classical Marxist thought."
I think this "preening, pretentious, self-satisfied, egoists" is mostly what happens to people who deal with captive audiences (students) all their lives. It's like there's never a reality principle. But I'd say he offers a rather benign instance of this problem.
Joanna