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From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>
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Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 18:16:27 -0400
Matthew King wrote:
>I'm not sure exactly what "more" you have in mind here, but I'd suggest to
>you (and Rorty) that a lot of members of "the Foucauldian left" *are*
>involved in more kinds of political action than those, even if their
>Foucauldian language leaves them without the theoretical tools to justify
>other kinds of action (but then, so does a Rortyan language).
Pop Rortyite Eric Alterman of The Nation whined about the theoryheads in
his debut column last May, and then tacked this on towards the end:
> "But here's the twist. [Reformist Social-Democratic
> Leftist Nelson] Lichtenstein is part of a perfectly
> Rortyite reformist Campaign for a Living Wage at
> the University of Virginia. This campaign is not
> about ending sexism, racism, or homophobia, but
> about getting janitorial staff a few extra bucks
> an hour. Who are its volunteers? Primarily, says
> Lichtenstein, faculty and graduate students from
> the pomo literature and theory crowd.
That undermines his whole point, but neither he nor his editors seemed to care.
Doug
