INTELLECTUALS, reason & al.

[Robert Johnson]

	It is obvious to me that Ralph Dumain needs to be "engaged"
	on his own level, which is admittedly "unlike" those whom
	he critiques...

	Ralph, I think you're an ignorant jack-ass that couldn't sustain
	a three minute discussion on mutually observable reality.

	Let's talk about "intellectual" credentials shall we?



							Coyote

On Wed, 23 Jul 1997, Ralph Dumain wrote:

> McClain Watson sez:
> 
> >Many of the remarks contained in your reply to D. Scully
> resounded with
> >me,
> 
> I'm glad, though it's too bad I lost you later on.
> 
> >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"?
> 
> I don't understand this nonsense.  I did not condemn political
> action.  Remember, in an earlier post, I said that the
> (left-liberal) intellectual, insecure about his position in the
> world, vacillates between autonomous theory and political
> commitment, without being able to reconcile these two impulses.
> In my last post, I suggested that the type of politics an academic
> intellectual is likely to engage in , whatever else he may do,
> cannot overcome the fundamental problem of perspective that
> emanates from the division of labor itself.  I did not suggest
> that profs quit their posts and take up jobs in heavy industry (no
> longer available) or the fast food industry, but the truth is that
> how you live every day and who you interact with has a more
> fundamental effect on your relationship with the world than your
> political lifestyle chosen as a free-time activity.  I did not
> suggest a solution to this problem, because there is none, short
> of a popular political movement, an issue which goes beyond the
> question of how the intellectual can solve his problem in his
> immediate situation.
> 
> > Also, isn't the "division of labor and the social segregations
> of everyday life" the
> >fundamental target of a majority of these
> demonstrations/activities?
> 
> I would hope so, but in the absence of a real mass movement,
> political activity becomes a subculture like any other, and hence
> the problem remains.
> 
> > 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 expressions 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).
> 
> Thanks for confirming my arguments by your bad example.  I write
> what I do to oppose people who think as you do.  Because you do
> your cheerleading for the black lumpen from a safe distance, you
> don't have to deal directly with the consequences of the ignorance
> you promote.  If you were a black parent raising children, you
> would think differently.  The naivete of your statement is why I
> write off the white intellectual left.  Worthless!
> 
> This is not 1968, when an innocent show like the Smothers Brothers
> was booted off the air.  Bitching and moaning is now part of this
> system; capitalism cannot survive without the cynicism it promotes
> through the mass media, a cynicism which ultimately only confirms
> its own power.  Cynicism doesn't fight fascism, it serves it.  The
> question is: what do people have to strive for; do they seek to be
> more than they are, do they demand a higher quality of life?  You
> should spend more time with ghetto ignoramuses and with those who
> strive to better themselves before you make such stupid
> pronouncements.  The universal is not complaining; the universal
> is the development of human beings.  You turn my stomach.  Obtuse,
> idiotic, intellectual puppies who can't understand the most
> elementary principles of human existence expressed in plain
> English.  Makes me sick.
>