[lbo-talk] Explanatory Note

shag carpet bomb shag at cleandraws.com
Tue Jan 17 14:20:55 PST 2012


I must be dumber than a box of rox because I took Angelus's response to be that people are more intested in reading marxist theory because of what's going on around them. i don't see how that answers the question I'd asked.

You know, someone once said that a marxist publication has a theory about where the subject of history emerges - something about how it can't emerge in the u.s. because people in the u.s. are too spoiled by consumer goods, wages, etc. to every care abotu overthrowing capital. Thus, they occupy a subject position that makes them resistant to seeing themselves as harmed by capitalism. People in the third world, even people in non-industrialized countries (IIR this view correctly) may be more apt to see their interests as opposed to capitalism and so more likely to be revolutionary or a fertile ground where they might want to stir up revolution.

you get my point yet?

Doug says theory matters, that it can be used to shape how we act, what goals we pursue, where we protest, who were are interested in as possible allies in the struggle against capitalism, where we attack capitalism, if we can attack it, where to best spent our limited energies. Most people agree with him.

So, in this debate does it matter. Does Graeber's view tend to push us in one direction or not? If it does, is this a "bad" direction and why?

At 03:48 PM 1/17/2012, Carrol Cox wrote:
>My eyes began worsening again in late November. I have now reached the place
>where I can no longer read anything. I play it aloud through ZoomText at a
>painfully slow rate. Writing is not so deeply affected, but after a certain
>point I lose track of my text because I cannot scan it quickly. This is all
>complicated now of course because of my physical condition, which is
>improving but still leaves me beat periodically. I have a response, I hope
>nearly coherent, to shag's question on theory and practice which I hope to
>send out today. In the meantime on the specific case of theory/practice,
>Angel's response is pretty good.
>
>I hope some other than a morale-boosting off list poster take up the
>question of Vol. 2.
>
>Carrol
>
>P.S. to Jim F. Will you get me off the A-list & M-Thaxis. I have to simplify
>my life and my inbox.
>
>
>
>___________________________________
>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk

-- http://cleandraws.com Wear Clean Draws ('coz there's 5 million ways to kill a CEO)



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