As I said, it's not in our nature to give up however severely the odds stack up against us.
Those of us who operate mentally as well as materially outside of media and celebrity culture find ourselves effectively bound and gagged. We can of course have and have had a small impact, but lacking a substantive societal basis for public discourse beyond the superficial, we can't make a dent in the media freak show which effectively saturates virtually all minds within our society, and which can mesmerize us when we let down our guard. The contradiction between the possibilities opened up by recent advances in communications and computer technology and the increasing pulverization and stupefaction of collective social existence is an especially acute one. The cleavage between radical intellectuals and activists in what the (loosely designated) left itself is as serious. There are, of course, academics who function in both roles, and there may be a crossover effect to a limited degree, but I think very limited, as I don't see the infrastructure or the ideological institutionalization of a coherent culture of profound radical critique. The left in a nation such as the USA itself is contaminated with both excessive subculturalism and celebrity media culture, and a fragmented consciousness as well as existence. I can and will give several relevant examples. At 02:27 PM 10/1/2007, Phil Walden wrote: >Thanks for the reply. Haven't got much time so this is very short. It is >possible to don an illusory consciousness whilst not being fooled into >really believing that it is true. I'd suggest more people are doing this >than you are allowing. Also, as an auto-didact you know the great interest >that ideas, and debate about ideas, can have. The authoritarian left has >tried to destroy that. But thanks to you and others it still exists. If we >can build up a genuine debate culture that will take us forward over the >next period, despite all the problems you rightly point to. Don't forget to >google Democratic Socialist Alliance. (UK). >Regards, >Phil _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [email protected] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
