malgosia askanas wrote:
>But also, if you force the question into a mental universe where the
>concept of "intellectual" is counter-posited against the concept of "mob",
>then you're dooming all possibilities of fruitful discussion of the
>role of intellectuals, because one is compelled to start by protesting
>this concept of "mob" and as soon as one starts to protest, one is
>immediately protesting too much. It is quite possible that the concept
>of "intellectual" is always already, as soon as it is posited as a separate
>social function, thusly doomed. In which case there is no point in faulting
>specific intellectuals for not being able to transcend this doomedness.
>All one can do is fault them, if one indeed wants to fault, for being
>intellectuals in the existing society. Are you prepared to do that?
>Me, I certainly am not. There is much too much I owe to intellectuals.
Of course I was using the term "mob" in a rhetorical way - to accentuate
what I thought was an unexamined, dissimulated snobbery hiding behind a
posture of modesty. But most people don't have the time to study history or
theory. As long as society is as polarized as ours is that will continue to
be the case. So I think there's a certain duty for people who do know
history and theory and who are not happy with the present structure of
society to share their knowledge and put it to some liberatory use. If
you've got no idea what to say or do, or don't care, well say so, instead
of hiding behind a "Who? Me?" pose.
Doug
>But also, if you force the question into a mental universe where the
>concept of "intellectual" is counter-posited against the concept of "mob",
>then you're dooming all possibilities of fruitful discussion of the
>role of intellectuals, because one is compelled to start by protesting
>this concept of "mob" and as soon as one starts to protest, one is
>immediately protesting too much. It is quite possible that the concept
>of "intellectual" is always already, as soon as it is posited as a separate
>social function, thusly doomed. In which case there is no point in faulting
>specific intellectuals for not being able to transcend this doomedness.
>All one can do is fault them, if one indeed wants to fault, for being
>intellectuals in the existing society. Are you prepared to do that?
>Me, I certainly am not. There is much too much I owe to intellectuals.
Of course I was using the term "mob" in a rhetorical way - to accentuate
what I thought was an unexamined, dissimulated snobbery hiding behind a
posture of modesty. But most people don't have the time to study history or
theory. As long as society is as polarized as ours is that will continue to
be the case. So I think there's a certain duty for people who do know
history and theory and who are not happy with the present structure of
society to share their knowledge and put it to some liberatory use. If
you've got no idea what to say or do, or don't care, well say so, instead
of hiding behind a "Who? Me?" pose.
Doug