Un-reason and pseudo-intellectuals...

[H. Curtiss Leung]

Jonathan writes;

>....For my own part, the only reason I
>tune in to this list is in the hope that I might find some illuminating
>perspectives and honest witnesses to the odd and painful spectacle of our
>so-called civilization.  Why?  BECAUSE I HAVE NOTHING ELSE TO THINK ABOUT
>WHILE I WORK THE PUNCH-PRESS FOR FIFTY HOURS A WEEK.
>

        Proud of your alienation, eh?  Think that manual labor somehow
makes you more "authentic?"  Tell me, I wanna know.

>Hmm, does this qualify me as "working-class"?  God, no.  I have a four
>year degree (philosophy/religion, if you care to know), come from a
>nouveau-upper-middle-class background, and I got my present job via a
>"temporary employment agency".  My current assignment (sounds exciting,
>no?) is one of those "indefinitely temporary" or "temp-to-perm" rackets so
>absolutely coveted by temps.  I wrote my thesis on Hegel and Nietzsche.
>

        That's nice.  But how exactly does your thesis change/mitigate
the fact that you have to sell your labor-power to survive?

>Ralph and Jim advocate affiliation with "working-class" organizations.  By
>which they seem to mean a Marxist organization, or perhaps a union.
>Although I have no particular interest in commenting on the "hip-hop"
>schizm entwined with this thread, I must note that as far as I can tell
>hip-hop (or goth, or reggae, or industrial) "clubs" are as populated by
>the honest-to-god "working-class" as anybody else.  If the music did not
>articulate some aspect of that experience, only the booze would remain.
>To which I expect a standard Marxist pat answer, something along the lines
>of the "false consciousness" of the "working class".  It doesn't wash.
>

        What doesn't wash is your argument's simultaneous claim to 
sophistication and working-class authenticity.  Of course the music
articulates _some_ aspect of everyday life -- but what DOESN'T it
do?  Why does it appear in the form it does?  Why has this particular
musical form appeared as a commodity and not another?  And don't assume
that I want to ban or forbid this or any sort of music, either.

>Nothing worth mentioning is going to change about this hellacious
>"society" we've gotten ourselves mixed up in until humans in all sorts of
>places hit the right note and the glass shatters.  That's what I'm looking
>for--the bits and pieces of the sonata which must arise if Benjamin's
>Angel of History is to find peace and close its wings.  It's our
>%$#^%##%$@ responsibility.  So--testify!  Articulate!  Confess! Lament!
>Chastize!  Rejoice!  The alternative, as we must know by now, is silence
>and ashes.
>

       Well, well, well -- the jargon of authenticity finally rears
its ugly head.  The individual and individual acts are extolled as
absolutes the better to render them absolutely impotent.  You write
that it's "our %$#^%##%$@ responsibility" -- but neglect, even denigrate,
the _social_ character of that task.  Some people on this list think
that existing social forms are adequate (Jim's position), others don't 
but are trying to build or imagine new ones (Ralph's).  This argument
is preliminary to and part of that task -- or do you just expect change
to fall from the sky, like manna from heaven?

        To use (or detourn, if you're familiar with the SI) your musical
metaphor:  Beethoven would work and rework the themes in his sonatas and
symphonic works for months -- why do you expect the agent of revolution
to take any less time?  Or less care?
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Curtiss Leung                        Voice (212)267-7722 x 3033
hleung@prolifics.com                   Fax (212)608-6753 
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