I have a friend At the end Of the world. His name is a breath Of fresh air. He is dressed in Grey chiffon. At least I think it is chiffon. It has a Peculiar look, like smoke. It wraps him round It blows out of place It conceals him I have not seen his face. But I have seen his eyes, they are As pretty and bright As raindrops on black twigs In March, and heard him say: I am a breath Of fresh air for you, a change By and by. Black March I call him Because of his eyes Being like March raindrops On black twigs. (Such a pretty time when the sky Behind black twigs can be seen Stretched out in one Uninterrupted Cambridge blue as cold as snow.) But this friend Whatever new names I give him Is an old friend. He says: Whatever new names you give me I am A breath of fresh air, A change for you.
On Fri, Feb 28, 2014 at 3:10 PM, Arthur Maisel <arthurmaisel at gmail.com>wrote:
> I think Joanna has part of the explanation. There is at least one other
> element, however: People feel beaten down, but they don't want to be told
> they're beaten down either because they already know it (in a way, Marx's
> point) or they want to imagine that they're not (perhaps what the Marine
> was feeling).
>
> "Hope" and "change" are, as we have seen repeatedly, more popular---maybe
> almost as popular as scapegoating. But given the validity of Joanna's
> point, the nostrums on offer have to be phony: "We'll change things, but it
> won't hurt anybody."
>
> Could this be the reason why *class* consciousness is a prerequisite?
> Change is one way or another mostly going to be bad for individuals, and
> thus the importance of emphasizing self-centeredness so as to maintain the
> status quo.
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 28, 2014 at 12:36 PM, JOANNA A. <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>> The world, such as it is, is a familiar one. One imagines one knows how
>> to get around in it.
>>
>> The world as proposed by radicals is unfamiliar and the feelings needed
>> to work to bring such a world about are very painful.
>>
>> Joanna
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> "Karl Marx's famous dictum sums up my teaching philosophy: "The
>> philosophers of the world have only interpreted the world in various ways;
>> the point is to change it." As I came to see it, Marx had uncovered the
>> inner workings of our society, showing both how it functioned and why it
>> had to be transcended if human beings were to gain control over their lives
>> and labor. Disseminating these ideas could help speed the process of human
>> liberation. From a college classroom, I thought that I could not only
>> interpret the world, I could indeed change it.
>>
>> Thinking is one thing; the trick is bringing thoughts to life. How,
>> actually, does a person be a radical teacher? How, for example, can
>> students be shown the superior insights of Marxian economics in classes
>> that have always been taught from the traditional or neoclassical
>> perspective--taught, in fact, as if the neoclassical theory developed by
>> Adam Smith and his progeny is the gospel truth? My college expected me to
>> teach students the "principles" of economics: that people act selfishly and
>> independently of one another, that this self-centeredness generates
>> socially desirable outcomes. And further, that capitalism, in which we, in
>> fact, do act out of self-interest, is therefore the best possible economic
>> system. Had I refused to do this and taught only Marxian economics, I doubt
>> I could have kept my job.
>>
>> My students were mostly the children of factory workers, miners, and
>> other laborers, just the young people I wanted to reach and move to action.
>> However, nearly all of them were hostile to radical perspectives, having
>> been taught that such views were un-American. Their animosity was sometimes
>> palpable, especially when I pointed out the many things they did not know
>> about our country's unsavory relationships with the rest of the world. A
>> retired Marine told me that, after we watched a particularly radical film
>> about U.S. imperialism, he wanted to come down the aisle and strangle me"
>>
>> I welcome comments. Please pass along to anyone you think might be
>> interested. If you post this to a website, please let me know.
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>>
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>
>
>