Date: Fri, 02 Jan 1998 11:23:50
From: Mark Bower <mab207-AT-psu.edu>
Subject: Re: Politics


At 10:55 AM 12/31/97 -0800, you wrote:
>Arturo Cherbowski wrote:
>> 
. . .Lenin"s question . . . It is irreducibly a question of POLITICS, a
question of
>> concrete possible outcomes, costs and benefits, forces and
>> counterforces, of expidiencies and necessities. . . What you ask here
>> does not even amount to a parody of it. . . it is sheer empty
>> abstraction. . . pure formalism intended at most to have a certain but
>> very vague rhetorical effect, to stimulate some affect, any affect on
>> the addressee. . it is hence a question of some ridiculous theoretical
>> concept such as the POLITICAL (very different from politics) or
>> something like that

Politics has been understood as a question of costs and benefits, of forces
and counter-forces, but is this necessarily so?  This definition does not
do "justice" to politics as it subordinates politics to economics
(questions of costs and benefits) and to war (what I suppose you mean by
forces and  counter-forces).

Lyotard's politics is about bearing witness to differends and linking
incommensurable language games.  These are matters of justice, not matters
of costs and benefits.  

Mark Bower





. . . What do you want to do in terms of what and at
>> what cost. . . anybody that operates within the sphere of any kind of
>> power or force understands almost intuitively that this question only
>> makes sense or amounts to more than mental masturbation when asked in
>> the way that Lenin does. . . the way you ask it here is really
>> meaningless. . . I'll tellyou what I will do right now. . . I am going
>> to the corner deli to buy a Coke. . .is that what you meant ?
>-AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT--AT-
>
>I meant:  What do you, Arturo, "think" is to be done?  Getting a coke
>may stimulate a thought process more than punching keys. 
>
>Hugh
>
>
>
>