On Wed, 26 Mar 2003 06:32:49 -0800 "Harry Berger, Jr."
<[log in to unmask]> writes:
> "contemporary politics, over which we
> have sagely remarked that we have no power."
>
> There's an infinite difference between zero power and infinitesimal
> power. We have infinitesimal power; we use a little of it here.
Wasn't there an influential academic who believed in the power of the
infinitesimal to change oppressive discursive formations by sniping at
them from below, from the margins, or with pavement stones and street
blockades? The ambition and self-esteem of the infinitesimal seems to
have shrunk since '68. Even if that represents a more mature
understanding of power and violence (rather than ascension to the Bower
of BoBos), one would think that more could be accomplished than a
group-grimace in the faculty lounge, a protest march or two, and the
circulation of some email petitions. For those who are convinced the US
is led by an imperialistic election thief with anti-democratic designs, I
do wonder why the pavement stones are not forthcoming, or at least a
"Baghdad Jane" performance. Do we have any representatives of (whatever
it is we are now--post-humanist anti-bourgeois?) acting as "human
shields?" No? Chalk up another kill for the pacifying force of
enlightenment liberalism. -Dan Knauss
"The term "ideological" refers to the subordination of contemplative
theory [_theoria_] to the libido dominandi_, which manifests itself in
the building of closed systems around dogmatically will "positions," in
reductionism of both scope and materials of analysis, and in the
determination to substitute an intellectually fabricated "Second
Reality" for the reality given to man."
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