Author's posts
Oct 29 2008
Critical theory as a discipline for the 21st century
In the hectic run-up to an important election, we need to keep minds focused on the larger picture, and on the potential for epochal change in light of environmental and economic crises.
Critical theory was begun in the 20th century as an alternative to capitalist “social science” and also as an alternative to Leninist forms of “dialectical materialism.” It sought to look at the world in terms of history, philosophy, and science, criticizing “mainstream” social science as infected by ideological attitudes while recognizing the persistent longevity of the capitalist system and wondering what to do about its injustices.
This diary will explore the possibility of critical theory, a 20th century “bigger picture” way of thinking about the world, as an intellectual and social discipline for the mind and for understanding the 21st century world.
(Crossposted at Big Orange)
Oct 06 2008
a real abrupt climate change plan
Several diarists have already suggested during last week’s debate about the bailout bill that the “real” crisis facing America is that of abrupt climate change. This is an attempt to take them seriously.
The discussion of what to do about abrupt climate change is, in this author’s opinion, at an extremely preliminary level — this diary is intended to forward the conversation in conformance to what can be realistically expected from climate change.
(Crossposted at Big Orange)
Oct 01 2008
post-capitalist environmental design: money and the Echo Park Time Bank
One of the things we will have to include in post-capitalist environmental design is a new system of money. This diary is a preliminary investigation of this, continuing from the last diary on post-capitalist economic design. Here I will discuss in brief the fate of the US dollar, the idea of the “time dollar” as explained by the founders of the Echo Park Time Bank, and the ideas of Hutchinson, Mellor, and Olsen’s The Politics of Money.
(Crossposted on Big Orange)
Sep 25 2008
the practical art of the future: toward post-capitalist environmental design (rewritten!)
Now that the “bailout bill” has been labeled a fait accompli, it should be time for us (at least those of us who live in “safe states,” where none of our screaming and shouting will affect the electoral count) to consider the possible invention of the practical art of the future: post-capitalist environmental design.
The point of such a concept of design will be, among other things, to overcome the “merely reactive” nature of environmental/ Left alternatives to the status quo by suggesting that our efforts contribute to more than just efforts to mitigate the damage done by right-wing rule under capitalist conditions. We do, indeed, have an alternative vision of the world: and this is a beginning discussion of its technics.
(crossposted to Big Orange)
Sep 20 2008
Maybe we can call it “late late capitalism” now?
This diary will muse upon the events of the last week or so, with especial reference to recent DKos diaries which I’ve been reading, putting them in the context of the real conditions in which we live… the end result will be to characterize the political economy of the present as “late, late capitalism” while reflecting upon DailyKos.com as a site of lively discussion about current events.
(crossposted at Big Orange)
Aug 19 2008
Off the Capitalist Path: A Second Look at Speth’s “Bridge”
This is a review of James Gustave Speth’s Bridge at the Edge of the World, intended as a supplement to the short review given of this book in the Monthly Review. Speth is a prominent environmentalist who has worked with the Democratic Presidential administrations of Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. His words, then, deserve our attention for their connections to political effectiveness.
(crossposted at Big Orange)
Aug 01 2008
Through the Looking Glass on Abrupt Climate Change
`When _I_ use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
`The question is,’ said Alice, `whether you CAN make words mean so many different things.’
`The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master – – that’s all.’
(From Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass)
Yeah, this is a diary about abrupt climate change. Crossposted at Big Orange.
Jul 19 2008
Bad Pragmatism in Theory (pt.4): Gramsci vs. the Republicans
There are two models of the acquisition of political power discussed here:
1) the Republican model, in which an “aestheticized” politics is promoted (in this case, it’s the “aesthetics” of the War on Terror and of insecurity in general) in order to capture power for an elite (the Bush administration and its neoconservative cronies, and its financial backers in the oil and defense industries)
2) the model proposed by the Italian thinker Antonio Gramsci, in which a coalition comes to power in order to support the claims of working people.
Here I will try to suggest that the former is “bad pragmatism” and the latter is real pragmatism, and suggest that the Democratic Party stop imitating 1) and find a way to subscribe wholeheartedly to 2).
(crossposted at Big Orange)
Jul 17 2008
Kate Menken’s “English Learners Left Behind”
This is a book review of Kate Menken’s English Learners Left Behind, which details the difficulties faced by “English language learners” under the testing regime faced by NCLB, with special emphasis upon problems the author observed and researched in New York State.
(crossposted at Big Orange)
Jul 12 2008
Bad Pragmatism pt. 3: Common Sense Principles for a Crappier World
I know your attention is probably better devoted to some good, popular diaries which have made the rec list today: One Pissed Off Liberal’s jeremiad against the crooks, for instance, or Nightprowlkitty’s harrowing story of detention. This is simply a short reflection upon the recent history of bad pragmatism, the political trend which decks itself out in colors of “realism” and “pragmatism” (while attempting to present a moral face to the world) but is in fact just plain wrong.
This diary will only confront three rhetorical principles of bad pragmatism: “bipartisanship,” “teacher accountability/ test them every year” and “fiscal prudence.” More will be forthcoming.
(crossposted at Big Orange)
Jul 10 2008
Bad Pragmatism pt. 2: Benjamin Ginsberg’s The American Lie
Book Review: Ginsberg, Benjamin. The American Lie: Government by the People and Other Political Fables. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2007.
This, part two in a series, will analyze Benjamin Ginsberg’s book The American Lie as a “cynical realist” take on the American political process, suggesting that even though it’s marginally useful to be “cynical,” we still must be against “bad pragmatism” and in favor of politics for the greater good even when confronted with the corrupt system we have today.
Next: either a history of bad pragmatism, or a diary on the latest bad pragmatist outrage. There WILL be a Bad Pragmatism pt. 3.
(crossposted at Big Orange)
Jul 01 2008
Bad pragmatism in political decisionmaking
This diary was prompted by the debate that circulated here around Senator Obama’s vote on telecomm immunity in the FISA bill, especially in Keith Olbermann’s diary of 6/26, and thereafter. Olbermann’s rationalization was that Obama’s vote was a pragmatic move to attain power for the greater good. The debate about Obama’s vote culminated in a defense of “purity trolls” (as such) in a diary listed here: “I’m calling out purity trolls by name,” incl. the Founding Fathers. Since this “pragmatic” justification is endemic in politics today, I think it behooves us to examine it, and to specify and explain a “bad pragmatism” that comes of the uncritical acceptance of social “reality”. I will also specify an antidote to “bad pragmatism,” in the concept of utopian dreaming.
(crossposted from Big Orange)