Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 07:44:57 -0500
From: Richard Moodey <moodey001-AT-mail1.gannon.edu>
Subject: BHA: spoilt solidarity


Hi Carrol,

I changed the subject line from "tall poppy," because your last sentence 
really grabbed me, and got me to thinking about dialectic again.

At 10:33 AM 10/29/2003 -0600, you wrote:

>Marxism was first of all the recognition
>that until one was _already_ engaged in changing reality one could not
>explain it. While the Eleventh Thesis doubtless contains a pragmatic
>element (get busy just don't sit there) it is better used, I believe, as
>a summary of marxist epistemology.
>
>Spirituality seems to me to be merely spoilt solidarity.

I first entertained the notion that it might be equally true to assert: 
"Solidarity seems to me to be merely spoilt spirituality."  Equally true, 
but equally false.  Just as there is a dialectical tension between theory 
and praxis, so also there might be one between "spirituality" and 
"solidarity."  That is, the exclusion of the "antithesis" spoils the 
"thesis."  One type of spoiled solidarity might be mindless conformity, and 
one type of spoiled spirituality might be narcissism.

Regards,

Dick






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