Well, Patrick, First of all thanks for your kind permission to post your reply on the discussion forum so that our debate can be joined by others.
Paulo Freire says at some point words to the effect that the codification (i.e. in this case the discussion text) should not be too woodenly representative, nor should it be too enigmatic. It should be chosen so as to stimulate a discussion, that's all. It is true, as I noted and you now confirm, that post-modernism as such is on the wane, thank goodness. Not only here but all over. It still remains the case that there is a contradiction in philosophy between humanists, being broadly those who recognise human agency and desire "Power to the People", and those others who are more-or-less fatalist, or "necrophiliacs", to borrow one of Freire's terms, meaning "death-lovers". Post-modernism is an example, but not the only possible one, of the latter kind of philosophy. Nor is it really about "meta-narratives", for or against, whatever the post-modernists may say about that. A "meta-narrative" would be equally as disabling if it was objective determinism. Or if it was didactic and doctrinaire. Or if it was presented as prophecy. Meera Nanda's essay is very much capable of being used for several other, related discussions, as I pointed out. You decline those other discussions for the time being. So be it. Today and Monday I will post the additional texts for the tenth and final part of this course. They deal with issues around the 1956 20th CPSU Congress, and Ron Press's 1995 "New Tools for Marxists", which latter will be our actual discussion text next Thursday. And that will be the end of our course on Philosophy and Religion. There is no attempt at closure. We are not trying to wrap up our learning as a commodity. Best wishes for your long sabbatical in California. VC On 27 August 2010 09:08, Dominic Tweedie <[email protected]> wrote: > > From: Patrick Bond <[email protected]> > Date: 27 August 2010 08:04 > Subject: Re: [YCLSA Discussion] [Communist University] Philosophical > Battlefield > > > > Dominic, there has been no, is no, and will be no threat from pomos here in > South Africa. At one point nearly two decades ago, the SACP witnessed a > small entryist effort by people associated with Ernesto Laclau, but I gather > it was repulsed. There has been a small circle of extremely important > African post-structuralists based at Wits Institute for Social and Economic > Research around Achille Mbembe, but even there I sense a much stronger > interest in poli econ and associated meta-narratives (e.g. crits of > 'neoliberalism') than would have been possible a decade ago. > > Thabo Mbeki had naught to do with the pomo intellectual strain. He's best > described as a neoliberal nationalist, full of Western ambitions and > Africanist rhetoric, neither of which are consistent with the posties' > project. > > There are real intellectual fights to be had, mainly with liberals who > believe that workers are overpaid and too militant, and that the SA state is > a 'developmental state' or a semi-welfare state. Those fights we take up in > the new book Zuma's Own Goal: Losing SA's "War on Poverty". > > I don't think anyone in our book bothers with pomo-bashing. It's not really > a distraction, in my experience. SA was too far off the map to be circled by > those trendy currents. (And even in the decaying West, the pomo threat > receded by the late 1990s, I sensed). > > (Won't say anything about Hinduism or 'reactionary feminism', as those > haven't crossed my radar screen.) > > Ciao, > Patrick > > > > > > > > DomzaNet wrote: > >> *Philosophy and Religion, Part 10* >> >> < >> http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_D4UK2kWf5ik/THdEjC6ZpII/AAAAAAAACk4/8daEI7CjHys/s1600/10+Meera+Nanda.jpg >> > >> >> *Philosophical Battlefield* >> >> >> /This week brings the last of the ten parts of our CU Generic Course >> called “Philosophy, Religion, and Revolution”. There will be three items, of >> which this is the first. The suggested item for discussion is the last one: >> Ron Press’s “New Tools for Marxists”, linked below./ >> >> >> -- Blog at: http://domza.blogspot.com/ Communist University web site at: http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/ Subscribe for free e-mail updates at: http://groups.google.com/group/Communist-University/ Library of documents (CU "CD") at: http://cu.domza.net/ [email protected] -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
