Jodi wrote a piece posted at hers and at Long Sunday on Zizek and the concept of solidarity. In it she poses the idea that the paradigmatic “relation between political friends is that of solidarity.” (more…)
February 9, 2006
… is solidarity?
January 30, 2006
… is nominalism?
August 21, 2005
… is a communist?
Before Angelica and I moved from Chicago to Minneapolis, we had a going away party at Loyola Beach. We had a sandcastle building competition. Jay from the IWW and my brother Trent competed against Jen and my nephews. Jen made a joke, “I’m a socialist. Should I be building sandcastles? Wouldn’t sand-housing be better?” Kathy, who is rightwing, said “I’m a capitalist so I can build sandcastles if I want to.” Jen said “No you’re not, you don’t own the means of production,” making a sort of socialist-realist (ie, crappy) joke. I walked away to eat some chips.
Later I thought about this, and about what it means to be a communist. There are capitalists, and capitalism. Are there communists, too? In a sense parallel to being a capitalist, a concrete social position? If the product which accompanies all other products under capitalism is that of social relations in the form of capitalism, is there communism which produces social relations in the form of communism? To my mind, the answer is yes. Then, what in the hell is a communist? (more…)