June 21, 2006
Down with change! (Movement, line of flight, dynamic as opposed to static.)
Up with stasis!
At least in one register: my wife and I are signing a lease to stay in our apartment one more year. We moved in this past February. In the past ten years I have moved 16 times, counting this last one and not counting the three months I lived in hotels in Missouri (for any readers from outside the US, it’s pronounced “Misery,” or at least would be if names corresponded to essences), between six cities or towns, located in three countries and three different states in the US, not counting existential states at least some of which are capable of spatial overlap such as depression, confusion, elation, inebriation, etc. This place will be ours for (at least) 18 months in total, my longest one time residence in a decade. (In a spirit of World Cup inspired something or other I’ll be shooting to make then break that record for personal best.)
June 20, 2006
This category of “depoliticalization” in Schmitt is one I’ve been wrestling with a lot lately. Essentially, the question for me is one of foundations, of taking our categories as artifactual. We made it, not found it. As I read Schmitt, depoliticalizations don’t render nonpolitical. Rather, they render ostensibly nonpolitical. They camouflage. The political, for Schmitt, can not and will not end. (more…)
There’s been a good bit written on the subject. For those unfamiliar, the wikipedia entry’s not the worst place to start. There’s also several web sites that deal with the issue. (more…)
June 19, 2006
I’ve barely even started jobhunting and I’m already in a sour mood. I got an email just now, though, that brightened it. Issue number eleven of the Commoner web journal has just rolled out, co-edited by yours truly. I’m a big fan of the journal and was nervous about the prospect of co-editing, felt like getting on stage with a beloved local band. All that pressure. Ends up I’m quite pleased with how the issue turned out. Those interested, click here.
A body. No, not Foucault or Spinoza. More from Sewell. (more…)
June 16, 2006
More trying to tie threads between things. (more…)
Class consciousness is not a category I’ve got much interest in, insofar as I’ve encountered it. William Sewell takes it his object of study in his 1980 book Work and Revolution in France, but not so much as a theoretical category. More along the lines of “what did (some) workers think?” I’m more open to that. (more…)
I’ve just started the first long (and the longest) essay in the Philosophy of the Encounter, “Marx in his Limits.” (more…)
