This indeed a very juicy subject to discuss. I would like to add my own
very serious observations too.
However would like to know, why such non linux emails are continuing on
the list ?
with Regards,
ASHWIN
dipankar das wrote:
On Friday 25 November 2005 06:11, Rajarshi Guha wrote:
... Colonialism is not the most obvious axis
of analysis for this. A better model is provided by Marxism's analysis
of labour and the progressive degrees of alienation ...
... is a phenomenon of advanced capitalism and I don't think is limited
to a colonized mode of subjection. Is there a way to avoid this or can
we just analyze and make people aware that "you are being subjected
and alienated"?
... The solution offered is an old one but insuffiecient -
it implies resisting subjection thru enlightenment - figuring out how to
use a command line instead of icons - but is that really less mediated
than a GUI? It's a different KIND of mediation but not any more closer
to a kind of truthful "essence" of a what a computer should be. This
sort of what is termed "reification" - when you set up an idea of what a
thing "really" is and set it up as an unmediated "truth", substituting
it for the thing-in-itself. Like assuming that a command promt is
inherently, by nature closer to computer-ness than a GUI.
Dear Guha
The process of particular kind of 'colonialism' there was named 'nameless
colonialism' which is a very postcolonial phenomenon. We described this
process to its full length in our book 'margin of margin: Profile of an
Unrepentant Postcolonial Collaborator'. This book deals in Post-Hegelian
Post-Marxist philosophy and political economy. The field of Marxist and
Post-Marxist political economy and its philosophy in a postmodern
postcolonial field is my area of work for the last fifteen years or so. The
Marxist viewpoint, or, better, the formulation you are using, the 'class'
viewpoint is always already there, in the 'nameless colonialism'. The
'colonialism' part in the name shows its continuity with the colonial
history, and the 'nameless' part shows its difference.
The kind of class way of seeing that your friend must have suggested is
already there. I did not go into those details in the lecture. And as you can
clearly see, the relationship between GUI and this postcolonial colonialism
is not that direct. That part i agree with you. But, as A Mani also pointed
out, or, i read it that way, the GUI and GUI, and more importantly, GUI
without the sense of the man-machine interface, which is impossible in an MSW
system, from the childhood, creates a mindset that actually fosters and feeds
this process of postcolonial colonialism. And question of labor process that
your friend raised is already there too, when i said 'out-sourcing' as a
variation on the theme of 'putting out system', where i refer to Marx's
'Capital' directly.
This mindset works exactly the same way the process of 'mimicry' and 'lack'
works in a colonial mind. Here, the hidden references were works of Jacques
Lacan and our own works too, in this field of post-Marxist philosophy. We
dealt with this to a very detailed study in our 'margin of margin'. And these
things may be not so familiar to the world of computer people, but these are
pretty household things in the academic world of political economy and
philosophy where i belong too by my occupation and works. And so, this was
not a question of if the issue could be better dealt with a Marxist Episteme,
the field is already postcolonial postmodern Marxist frame of reference.
The nature of the book 'margin of margin' is very technical, just meant for
people in this field. But, if someone is interested, i wrote a series of
essays in the last eleven years in the Bangla magazines 'Anustup', 'Apar' and
'Annya Swar', where i dealt with these things in a more easy everyday way,
particularly two essays from that series may help anyone interested, one is
'margin of margin: ekta a-technical bhumika' in 'Apar', and 'colony jayni
morey aajo' in 'Anustup'. Both of them are available in pdf, but, both of
these essays are fairly long, around 150 pages each when they were printed in
the magazines.
Thanking you
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