Date: Thu, 5 May 1994 11:40:03 -0700
Sender: pen-l@ecst.csuchico.edu
From: Jim Devine <JNDF%LMUACAD.BITNET@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU>
Subject: Re: PoMo in the 90'ies
 
On Thu, May 5  1994 09:55:02 -0700 Pete Bratsis said:
 
>For all the bashing and assertions of nihlism, 'postmodern social theory'
>has not resulted in one gulag, in one vanguardist party, etc. So,
>those who hold a 'post-modernist'/boutgeois false consciousness
>may indeed be less of a threat to workers than the 'real' revolutionaries.
>
Astrology hasn't produced any gulags, either! But is that an argument
in favor of astrology?
 
Marxism (or at least Marx's version) is part of the Enlightenment
rationalist/empiricist tradition. The gulag-builders broke with
that tradition.  The PoMo folks (or at least the ones with which
I am familiar) also broke with that tradition, but at least they
haven't built any gulags.  But what about going back to the non-
gulag-building Enlightenment perspective of Marx (updated, of
course, in light of the history of the last 130 years)?
 
BTW, it's Marx's birthday today! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KARL!
(we May forgot day. Sorry.)
 
in pen-l solidarity,
 
Jim Devine   BITNET: jndf@lmuacad    INTERNET: jdevine@lmumail.lmu.edu