Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2003 12:32:03 -0700 (PDT)
From: spencer <spencerpdx-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: [postanarchism] academics blah blah blah richard


well, since you're trying to bait me, Richard, you
should at least read the words you're posting.

as a graduate student at a city university, i am
hardly a "professional" or an "academic" - nor do i
have any particular intention of being one. unlike
probably many/most people on this list, i went to
really crappy public schools for my prior "education"
if you can call it that, and although i did try to
play the pseudo-autodidact and learn a lot of the
heavy intellectual stuff on my own, i could never
quite get there (realized this after i had to put
'being & time' down on p100) later, i realized that
almost all the 'independent intellectuals' had
actually gone through fairly extensive - and often
elite - schooling (such as John Zerzan - Stanford
University BA, PhD work at UC Santa Cruz - look at the
interview in 'running on emptiness').

as far as academics dominating the anarchist scene -
never seen it myself, although i have seen Marxist
profs attempt to do this. frankly, David Graeber
(Yale) is the only person i could even dream that you
are referring to (except cranky old Murray B) and i
have never witnessed DG do one thing or another in
this matter. Stepehen Duncombe, the only other person
i can think of who is a prof (but more of a FS
Marxist) always struck me as a decent person to work
with.

my experience is this: there are almost no anarchist
professors in academia in the US, and y'all are
engaging in some bizarro kind of self-hatred for being
educated. maybe the Euros have a different
perspective/experience.

shut up and listen to what's going on around you if
you have no political experience and don't want to
exert your "social priviledge" - and organize and get
in the streets if you want to know about politics.

*spencer

PS most people hate academics anyway, i am having a
hard time with this "social priviledge" angle. go read
the frothing anti-academic & anti-intellectual
'anarchy in the age of dinosaurs' for a clear example.

Date: Sat, 4 Oct 2003 01:10:16 -0400
From: Richard Singer <ricinger-AT-inch.com>
Subject: Re: [postanarchism] Is there anyone on this
list who isn't a 
current or  aspi..

No argument with any of the points below, really.  I
wasn't saying I hate people because they are students
and professors (which would be a surprise to some
people on this list whom I even encountered and hung
out with recently in an office in the CUNY graduate
center!), but it is my observation that there have
been academics, as well as various other types 
of teachers and educational bureaucrats, who've
dominated "anarchist" groups and who seem to claim a
certain degree of hierarchy and prestige, in part due
to their academic status and/or the role that they are
used to playing.  I won't name names or get more
specific here, because I have had some conflict with
some of these people (I don't like them and they 
really don't like me), and I am weary of infighting
arguments.  My main point is to watch out for even
not-so-conscious assumption of hierarchical power 
and privilege that may go with socially privileged positions...

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