File spoon-archives/marxism-general.archive/marxism-general_1997/marxism-general.9711, message 141


Date: Thu, 13 Nov 1997 10:18:01 +0000
From: James Heartfield <James-AT-heartfield.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: M-G: Re: Table manners according to Doug H


In message <Pine.GSO.3.96.971112151456.29587A-100000-AT-acnet>, Gerald Levy
<glevy-AT-pratt.edu> writes
>Doug Henwood <dhenwood-AT-panix.com> wrote:
>
>> I
>> think good language, good thinking, and good art shouldn't be the province
>> of the educated bourgeoisie alone. I think they should be the universal
>> property of humankind, and that this should be one of the central goals of
>> socialism.
>
>What has the above to do with Marxism? You speak of "good language" ... I
>ask *whose* language?  "Good thinking"?  The thinking of *what class*?
>"Good art" ... *for whom by whom*? 
>
>It may not have occurred to you but language, "thinking", and art
>are historically created and socially-specific rather than being
>trans-historical and "universal." 
>
>[btw, Doug's suggestion that the "universal" ... "good language" is proper
>English is an example of national chauvinism. I wonder: do others agree
>that one of the "central goals of socialism" should be the Queen's  
>English?].
>
>Jerry


This is a really terrible contribution. I don't think it is right to
mock somebody for their spelling, but the idea that bad spelling is just
as good as good spelling, or that bad grammar is just as good as good
grammar is patently absurd. Not all human standards are a function of
class. Good health is not a bourgeois plot. Good science is not a
bourgeois plot. And good grammar is not a bourgeois plot. It is a human
achievement that should be celebrated and nurtured, not thrown into the
gutter. How are any of us to understand one another if there are no
conventions of language use?

I also agree with Trotsky's polemic against bad language. The role of
revolutionaries is surely to raise society's cultural level not lower
it.

Fraternally
-- 
James Heartfield


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