At 21:30 17/08/00 +0000, Mairi MacDonald wrote:
>On 17 Aug 00 at 20:13, Lee Brown wrote :
>
>>[snipped up to the highly amusing comment ...]
>>(or is that phrase too Marxist??)
>
>As one who *is* actually a Marxist, I am compelled to enquire what
>exactly all this extremely verbose intellectual posturing has to do
>with reality?
>

At a meeting once I listened to someone give a potted history of the
Australian Marxist left.  Needless to say it was a story of splits,
fractures, betrayals, and personality disputes masquerading as ideological
differences as each new group tried to define a purity of marxism ("we're
right: you're wrong"), new ways to slag off the working class (false
consciousness -- really!! -- how about cynical about previous betrayals
from both the right and the left).  As a young kid working on the factory
floor I was shocked to realise there was nothing for me there.  Do
Marxist's live in 'reality' :-)


>One thing every educated Marxist (rather than those who once read an
>opinionated analysis by Stuart Hall of a critique of a review of a book
>about Marx and feel that the label Marxist is really cool) holds as a
>core principle is that theorising without any practical objective is
>just so much wasted oxygen.

Someone I forget who (Mills, Weber??) said that all sociology is a dialogue
with Marx because he was the first to systematically analyse modern
industrial society.  Love him or hate him I have to have a passing
familiarity with his work.


>I recommend "The Poverty of Philosophy".
>

Something about changing the world rather than theorising it, perhaps? "In
politics the German's have thought what other people have done." (my
library's not what it should be I know).  With a few changes it sounds like
it might have been written about what some people pass off as 'queer
theory'  so maybe the obese bearded adulterer living off the sweat of
Engel's factory workers had a point??


Reality??  I drive a late night cab in Sydney to fund myself through Uni
... Junkies, hookers, sharing meals with homeless people, dealing with rich
drunken yobbos, Mr & Ms Average, Road-rage, getting ripped off by kids on a
spree, helping old people get a life outside their flat, finding knives on
the floor of the cab??  What part of reality should I get back to, do you
suggest??  Shit what I wanted from these lists was some relief from the
grime and misery of the streets ... fat fucken chance of that with all the
petulant children (the Paglia influence perhaps) and prima donnas.


>Anyway, this discussion belongs on trans-theory.
>

End of discussion, I'm unsubbing from both lists as I've too much to do in
the "real world" to put up with the crap, bullshit, dillitant posturing and
ratbaggery passing as theoretical discussion.

A couple of things before I go (to vent the spleen as it were  -- shit this
is making me angry, not a good look for the streets tonight)


There ain't no truth

It's just a crock to mask the relations of power (Foucault).  This is why
Harraway (biologist) or even Hawkins (Physist) are useful people to read --
they understand this and trying to deal with it in their work.

There ain't no justice

Life ain't fair -- innocent people die every day, the guilty get away scot
free, justice is the size of your wallet, the colour of your skin, the
'purity' of your thoughts, that's reality, deal with it ...

And the American way is a decaying corpse polluting the planet (if it
doesn't blow it up first given the idiots currently vying to grap hold of
the button).

Finally concepts of purity (this is TS, this is TG) kill people ... that is
the lesson to be learned from fascism, fundamentalism, separatism, etc...
To produce an almost completely useless thing like gold one has to poison
the environment with cyanide.  That's the result of the will to purity ....

You better pick up that pistol Susan and start shooting those you disagree
with, exploding your bigotry, intolerance and bile into other people's
bodies because they're not like you, they're everywhere and they'll always
keep on coming (wide-eyed like rabbits or the Fool card in the tarot).

Lee (Just another lamb for the slaughter)


P.S.  I realise that a few people in the US have some subtle and detailed
understanding 'real life' and are trying to make a difference now in real
time.  To you I pay my respects as you care about people and the future.


<http://abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-17aug2000-24.htm>


>--
>mairi macdonald
>
>


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