"Herding cats, now there's a challenge." That's what I take to be THE challenge. One person with the "correct analysis" in a crowd of forty is at most one out of forty, probably less because of the multiplied influence of cultural cliches.
I am playing with three concepts: Eric Hobsbawm's "collective bargaining by riot" E. P. Thompson's "moral economy" and Charles Tilly's "repertoire." I would like to suggest a chain of affinity running from Eleusinian mystery fertility rites to Roman Ambarvalia celebrations to medieval Catholic Rogationtide and "beating of the bounds" to food riots, anti-enclosure riots and Luddite frame-breaking. As Thompson argued, the latter episodes were not "spasmodic" but were deeply embedded in custom. In turn, the custom was deeply embedded in the eternal mysteries of life: birth, death, sexuality, the fertility of the soil and the cycle of the seasons as modulated by climatic variation. The term that I think indicates a mediation between theory and practice is liturgy, which could be defined as a repertoire of public worship. Worship is etymologically related to "worth" and "value," so there is an economic implication in worshiping. But it is a different economy. Public worship contrasts with private utility. It comes into being through sharing rather than through exchanging. The collective is not a *collection* of individuals. It is an entity whose self awareness requires a distinctive type of cultivation: liturgy, public worship (rites, riots, strikes...). On Fri, Sep 13, 2013 at 7:11 PM, Eubulides <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, Sep 13, 2013 at 6:33 PM, Perelman, Michael > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I agree with Tom. Limited victories on matters such as the working day > and > > other reforms can provide fuel for organizing. Or are we supposed to > wait > > for everybody to get screwed over so much that they all rise up in > unison & > > create a socialist utopia overnight. > > > =============== > > Indeed; a synchronized satori of anti-capitalist collective action is > off the table. > > Herding cats, now there's a challenge. > > E. > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > -- Cheers, Tom Walker (Sandwichman)
_______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
