Re: [Marxism] Swarthmore professor gives Ward Churchill failing grade

["Carlos A. Rivera" <cerejota@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Louis Proyect" <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>

> Okay, let me reduce this clot of ungainly prose to its essence. Burke is
> saying that since Churchill is employed by the University of Colorado, his
> critique of the capitalist system lacks credibility. I myself have heard
> this kind of nonsense in the past--it usually goes something like this.
> "Louis, how can you be a Marxist when you live on the Upper East Side,
> enjoy fine wine and have a $3000 stereo?" This is an argument not worth
> answering, since it does not involve politics.

Alas, but it does Louis, it does.

And failure to concretely answer this very question is probably the main
reason marxist intellectualism to this day has very little connection to
working class politics in the USA.

To critique priviledge while enjoying it, however we as marxists can dismiss
it easily as a matter of dialectics or more generally as a thinly-veilled
attemp at self-fulfilling prophecy on the parts of critics, is still a
contradiction than smacks of hypocrisy to the average intellectual, not to
mention the average worker.

That it if of course an excercise in sophistry to elude responding the the
truths we manage to expose behind all the sometimes unfortunate rhetoric, by
no means makes it an argument not worth answering.

Quite the contrary.

Not that I will attempt to provide an answer, because I am in no position
answer, as I live in the racially disputed border of Crown Heigths and
Prospect Heigths in Brooklyn, can't afford even English Rose, and dont have
a stereo. But it does require one that goes deeper than an evasive "it
doesn't matter", or an exercise in dialectical denial.

That said, a simple answer in this specific case would suffice:

Churchill's forced resignation is proof in itself of the real limits of
intellectual freedom in this country. When a Presidnet can't even pronounce
"nuclear" right, lynching our best minds simply because you disagree with
what they are saying, is ludicrous. And intellectuals who justify such
exclusions, usually, themselves, have a vested interest in continuing this
regime. If we are to disqualify Churchill's words on the sole ground of  his
partisanship, then we must also disqualify his critics.

And then we stick to that message as if it were a mantra. If doing that
works with a dimwit like Dubya, it should do wonders for people with higher
IQs.

sks


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