A few blogs I occasionally read treat comments in a way that I don’t understand. To be blunt, they allow asshole behavior of all sorts among the comments. In an in-person discussion this stuff would undermine people’s ability to have an intellectually productive discussion. The same is basically true online. In person, most folk would eventually tell these folk to shut the fuck up, or would go elsewhere to have the conversation. Why this doesn’t happen more often online is beyond me, when it’s so easy - delete and edit the asshole comments. Easy peasy. It’s particularly weird because some of the people who run these blogs teach for a living, a job which requires people in the classroom to occasionally do what I’m suggesting. Ugh.
October 19, 2009
… are you people doing?
… am I gonna say?
I finally got a draft of that talk on the common done. I’m not happy with it except the done part. This is as good as it’s gonna be, given my time etc. Say la vee. As they c’est. (more…)
October 17, 2009
… is going on here?
Check this out - university takes legal action against student for anonymously voiced criticisms. Wild.
… is an argument from adequacy?
I made up this term, at least I think I made it up. I call it an argument from adequacy. It’s not a very good term, but I want some term and it’s all I can think of right now. I find arguments from adequacy annoying. Here’s what I mean by the term. (more…)
October 16, 2009
… did Pete have to say?
A blast from the recent past by friend and comrade Pete The whole piece is here. (Pete’s a member of Bring the Ruckus.) A few excerpts:
(more…)
… is the point of talking about material preconditions?
In a recent post, Steve Shaviro suggests that Hardt and Negri are economistic. I agree. In a recent piece, “The Common in Communism,” Hardt approvingly cites Marx from the 1844 manuscripts, about the growth of one form of property opening up new political possibilities.
Of course, changes in forms of property and so forth *do* change existing possibilities. (more…)
October 14, 2009
… am I doing with all my time?
Over time I’ve sort of started fucking around more with the blog, making dumb jokes and so on. That’s cool with me, it can be fun. At the same time, I’ve started to feel like some of the stuff I’ve spent my time on that doesn’t feel like it’s fucking around, like that stuff really is just fucking around. I need to reassess a bit, methinks. Fucking around, great. Not fucking around, great. Trying to do (and initially thinking one is doing) the second while ACTUALLY doing the first, unforgivable. The worst part is when the fucking around and the not-thinking-I’m-fucking-around-when-really-I’m-just-fucking-around eats time for stuff that is genuinely not fucking around and that I genuinely want to engage with. ARGH.
And I still gotta finish that damn post on ch24 of v1 of Capital. ARGH again.
In other news, I’ve started trying to read for enjoyment when taking the bus to work. Weird, eh? I’m rereading If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler again, because once again I find that reading and I are less in love than we used to be (it’s not you, reading, it’s me). This time I’m reading the book out of order - I’m reading the numbered chapters all in a row, then I’m going to go back and re-read the interrupted novel passages all in a row. Then, who knows, maybe read it again cover to cover. Or not.
October 13, 2009
… was Socialism or Barbarism?
Socialisme ou Barbarie, actually. They were a French left group, very influential in some circles. More details on wikipedia (where else?).
I just found out that there’s a bunch of their stuff been scanned in and posted on line, for readers of French this is awesome. My French is crap but maybe I’ll try and learn better. Here’s archive: