From: "Dave Bedggood" <dr.bedggood-AT-auckland.ac.nz>
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 09:42:35 +0000
Subject: Re: M-TH: Derrida


Hands up what? Rational/humane/playful society? 
Are you suggesting that we have to 
abandon socialism as the promised land? As far as I am concerned 
Derrida reworks Marx to fit the new audience who are turned off by 
Hayek's rational subject. Derrida replaces this with the sexy 
performance. But both reproduce the alienated bourgeois subject in 
thought.
Dave.
> 
> >>In a message dated 97-11-22 10:17:42 EST, James writes:
> >>
> >><< What Derrida et al do express is a kind of self-perception of a ruling
> >> class that elevates play over work, that values questions of identity
> >> and difference, that sees things in terms of consumption rather than
> >> production, and that has abandoned the sense of mission that was so
> >> important to its predecessors (the end of grand narratives). (I'll back
> >> off from slagging Bordieu, though, as I'm less confident of my ground)
> 
> OK James, I take your points to Lou on board, but is it critique to argue
> thart Derrida elevates play over work? Derrida's use of 'play' is a multiple
> punning tactic that alludes to the play of performance, the play of rickety
> structures etc etc. It doesn't specifically refer to some sort of
> leisure/toil split. And as to questions of value and difference- don't you
> value em too??
> As to the sense of mission- well yes, I agree he has his reservations on
> this, but then this is hardly a facet of just the ruling class, it appears
> to pervade far wider sections of society, including I suspect most of the
> non gung ho elements on these lists. Hands up those with a sense of mission
> that extends beyond the mere wish to see some sort of more
> rational/humane/playful? society.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 

Dave Bedggood


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