Date: Thu, 9 Mar 1995 21:18:49 -0800
From: Ralph Dumain <rdumain-AT-igc.apc.org>
Subject: Re:  Confused about post-modern Marxists


>I'm a little nervous about speaking up, but do so to hopefully
>get a measure of just how far off I am!

Welcome!  Why be nervous?  Just spill your guts!  What can happen?
No perfessers here to inhibit your mind and scotch your career.

>I was happy to read Ralph's post.

I have passed through the valley of the shadow of academic
disapproval and stand vindicated before the workers.  I've been to
the mountaintop; I've looked over, I've seen the promised land,
and I'm still here trapped in the shit.  Let me die with the
Philistines!

>post-modernism seems to be politically correct

>From what I am told, pomo is hegemonic in some places.  I have a
friend who just quit grad school because he couldn't take their
abuse any longer.

>It seems to me that post-modern Marxists are kind of sitting
>around saying, "Wowwww, look at how all this stuff acts and
>interacts..."

The factor theory --- warmed-over John Dewey, but hip and upscale,
like an Andrew Ross seminar.

>Another part of me, the part that, as a single mom on welfare is
>personally experiencing poverty and oppression, is heartened by
>Ralph's (and others') comments.

Talk to me!  It's brutal out here!  Did you catch the poem I
uploaded recently, "Countdown"?  It was meant to express my
feelings about doing intellectual work amidst the horror and
ruination of Washington, DC, seeing the poor being exterminated by
the budget cuts, feeling the horror of what is happening.  That's
why I wrote "Consolidate what you know" and "The final hours fall
upon us".  It's one thing to blather among intellectuals; try to
be an intellectual among non-intellectuals, and you'll learn
what's really important in a hurry.  Here it's all about either
being a street thug or going to church every night screaming for
Jesus to return.  We're going to have to boil down our knowledge
and our theory into some hard essentials, and we're going to have
to do it fast.


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