Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 23:19:31 -0500
From: hbone <hbone-AT-optonline.net>
Subject: Re: telephone games



Steve,

My favorite definition of political is the allocation of power.  It's a
personal struggle for politicians, as in
Parliaments.   I understand your "personal is political" .  The "personal"
relations between parents, grandparents
and their children, grandchildren and other loved ones is sometimes a
struggle for power, sometimes ends in
mayhem and murder, but is not the vocation of politicians.

Words as they are understood by addressor, may or may not have the same
meaning as the same words are
understood by addressee, says Lyotard.

Hugh
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

> Hugh/all
>
> Hugh said...
> "What is political changes with time.  Popes once conferred divine rights
> on Kings, burned heretics, but not lately."
>
> This could be said to relate accurately to "parlimentary politics"  but
does
> not allow for the  understanding of politics as it relates to our
> contemporary everyday lives - specifically it presumes that  the
'personal'
>  is not always already political. Including  such things as a person
> changing their surname,  gender, the act of walking down the street.
>
> What the statement the 'personal is political' assumes is that everything
is
> political... though not necessarily in the sense of parlimentary politics.
> Which is after all an extraordinarily constrained notion of the political
>
> regards
> steve
>
>
>
>