Re: Pomos in the academy was Deleuze/Guattari on fascism

[g.maclennan@xxxxxxxxxx]

On Fri, 19 Jan 1996, Justin Schwartz wrote:

>
> Louis asks why D&G and postmodernism are so hip nowadays, at least in
> humanities circles. He speculates that this may have to do with nostalgi
> afor the 60s...


I think their wriring style may have something to do with
> at authority. Since all of this is pretty safe as well as easy, it finds a
> place in humanities and the softer social sciences while Marxism gets
> drummed out and Marxists fired.
>
> I might remark that the last factor may play a role in the comparative
> popularity of the two approaches. An undergrad comrade of mine here was
> complaining bitterly that since I was canned there is no one to teach
> Marxist philosophy among the 3000 faculty members at OSU, particularly
> because the Marxist in the English Dept was also denied tenure this year.
> But of pomos there is no shortage. So young people don't hear about old
> Karl. My classes were always full up when I taught them!
>
> --Justin

I think that postmodernism is not so much nostalgia for the 60s as the
product of the failure of the 60s and the quiescence of the
working-class since the ending of the long economic boom.  I think that
it is also important to
recognisethe *class* basis of postmodernist theorizing. Lyotard's notorious
definiton of the "post modern condition" says it all.

"One listens to reggae, watches a western, eats McDonald's food for lunch
and local cuisine for dinner, wears Paris perfume in Tokyo and "retro
clothes in Hong Kong."

Within the academy as Justin correctly points out the task of the
postmodernists was to destroy Marxism.  this they performed with great
glee, mainly under the cover of being anti-stalinists, hence the
importance of the Gulag obsession.

But their dirty work is largely done and now they are being pushed over
in turn by the New Realists- the policy mongers.

In the meantime a whole generation of students has been depoliticised.

Mo Mhallacht ortha uilig.

Regards

Gary


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