[lbo-talk] Taking the Pulse of Elite Response to OWS

// ravi ravi at platosbeard.org
Tue Oct 18 11:44:14 PDT 2011


On Oct 18, 2011, at 2:07 PM, Doug Henwood wrote:
> On Oct 18, 2011, at 1:36 PM, // ravi wrote:
>
>> There’s political analysis and there’s political analysis. Assuming you don’t blame them for protesting without a degree in political science or sociology (or a union membership card), what you can fault them for is wilful ignorance (a la the tea baggers). But such is not the case. They are willing to learn about the economic system, the Fed, how to counter Ron Paulites, and so on, from Stiglitz or you. That is political analysis, is it not? I am sure they would be equally happy to hear someone educate them on political theories or ethical systems or what have you.
>
> Well no kidding. You & Eric are telling me things I already know with the apparent assumption that I don't know them. It's getting annoying.
>

Don’t be annoyed! I am not telling you things. I am trying to think with you.


>> On top of that, should they need to be aware of, acknowledge and act upon Dean’s blogging about process or how her kind of Leninist revolution would work, or Foucault theorists ideas about college, so on?
>
> They don't. That was the debate I was in with people - intellectuals in some sense - who claim an ideological affinity with the style of protest. I don't get why you have to keep bringing Jodi into this.

Because she was there at this panel and I don’t remember the other names (so I write “Dean and the anarchists”, etc). When you wrote that the audience agreed that “this” was important and it was not going on in Zuccotti, the “this” (in my mind) could be two things. I thought at first that it referred to the actual content of the discussion as outlined by you (“college is prison”, Foucault, Dean’s criticism of “process”, etc). So I wrote my thoughts on why they (the occupiers) might not care about that sort of stuff. The second possibility of what was important and happened at this venue, but not at Zuccotti, is the very process of debates/fights. I responded to that as well. I will also point out that recently there was some post about some language about racism that was modified after some debate - so it doesn’t seem true that debate is foreign to the crowd, or that commitment to politeness rules out debate.

I agree that this is getting drawn out. This is my last on this thread,

—ravi



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