INTELLECTUALS, reason & al.

[McClain Watson]

Many of the remarks contained in your reply to D. Scully resounded with
me, espicially regarding the tendency of many scholars to pay lip
service to thinkers such as (your examples):Foucault, Einstein, Freud,
etc., while simultaneously draining their concepts of any liberatory
potential they may possess.  Furthermore, I think most on this list
would agree with you when you write:
	> I do think that the orientation to knowledge ought to be not only a
specific
	> scholarly historical consciousness of how ideas originally
	> involved in their context of origin, which is certainly important,
	> but the development of the ability to remove ideas from their
	> original context and make them productive in other contexts that
	> matter to the world in which one finds oneself.

However, your final remark, espicially your examples of political
activism, are troubling, espicially in light of your professed hatred of
education which equates "logic and science" with domination and/or the
triumph of instrumental rationality.  
	> For intellectuals, the division of labor and the social segregations
	> of everyday life must be the point of analytical departure, not
	> "political activism" (demonstrating, getting arrested in front of
	> embassies, signing petitions, writing articles about gangsta rap,
	> and other tourist activities).  The universal is the development
	> of human beings, not social protest.

Are not these condemnations of overt political action (regardless of
their long-term effectiveness) the very source of many arguments
*against* the valorization of "science" and "logic"?  Also, isn't the
"division of labor and the social segregations of everyday life" the
fundamental target of a majority of these demonstrations/activities? 
Despite the ultra-conservative framing of these events in the mainstream
media, many (not necessarily myself) would argue that these activities
radicalize many more people and offer more hope for the "political
upheaval" than <swallowing my pride> any multi-threaded listserv post
could ever do.

Finally, I take great issue with your inclusion of "writing articles
about gangsta rap" in your admittedly limited definition of political
activism.  Hip-hop (of which gangsta rap is merely a small
manifestation) is one of the few cultural expresions which, with some
not insignificant qualifications, actually mirror many of the same
concerns that occupy those on this list.  Despite some major
contradictions, which *do* need to be analyzed and brought to bear (in
order to more dialectically evaluate and therefore appreciate this art
form), hip-hop is not only, in the words of KRS-ONE "the CNN of Black
america" but, I would argue, one of the most promising opportunities for
unification of theory (word) and practice (rap).

McClain Watson
jwatson@appstate.campus.mci.net