I say this with deep respect I feel for the scholarship and activism of Catherine Liu. Guess how many times I had to look up all these Lefty neologisms and shoptalk buzzwords while reading this piece? What did Chomsky say about the necessity of communicating in extra simple terms? When Marx was writing Das Kapital, he agonized over making sure that each and every concept he explored would be easily understood by the working class people who were fast becoming literal and politically savvy. He didn’t preach to the choir. This needs to be edited by some Chomsky associate. :))) Please . . .
What is the essence of the Marxist materialism? As far as I see it, it states that we live in a material universe and we, humans, are material beings and subjects. How do you propose we actually organize? How can we form the "non-instrumental relations" in reality? By writing? Discussing stuff? Especially using the "members-only" communication? Signifier-signified "discourse," for goodness sake?
I realized this a long time ago, back in this prehistoric area when I walked with the Occupy. Once we were expelled from the parks, it was all over. Instantaneously. Why? Because, as material beings, humans need to be firmly embedded into the Land. This is how revolutionary organising always proceeded in the past. We are a pack animal, we organize organically and spontaneously, we form Internal Relationships this way—and no other way. Think of this as the land-embedded people organizing along the power lines of the Land they are standing on—in the same way as a crystalline semiconductor organising itself internally when deposited onto a substrate, the semiconductor mirrors the substrate’s structure. Both being material entities. We need to figure out how to organize physically-present agents of the revolution. Teach-ins, dancing, smoking—whatever. Absolutely no face-time or zoom. We need to leave the university campuses behind, they have become toxic.
Promote, cultivate, and defend absolutely non-instrumental relations between people. Yes!
The Marxism I find most inspiring supplements the critique of Capital with yeasty visions of the common good. Love your portable shorthand.
I hope this might one day be a little zine that I could carry on my person and spontaneously hug to my breast in appreciation.
I say this with deep respect I feel for the scholarship and activism of Catherine Liu. Guess how many times I had to look up all these Lefty neologisms and shoptalk buzzwords while reading this piece? What did Chomsky say about the necessity of communicating in extra simple terms? When Marx was writing Das Kapital, he agonized over making sure that each and every concept he explored would be easily understood by the working class people who were fast becoming literal and politically savvy. He didn’t preach to the choir. This needs to be edited by some Chomsky associate. :))) Please . . .
What is the essence of the Marxist materialism? As far as I see it, it states that we live in a material universe and we, humans, are material beings and subjects. How do you propose we actually organize? How can we form the "non-instrumental relations" in reality? By writing? Discussing stuff? Especially using the "members-only" communication? Signifier-signified "discourse," for goodness sake?
I realized this a long time ago, back in this prehistoric area when I walked with the Occupy. Once we were expelled from the parks, it was all over. Instantaneously. Why? Because, as material beings, humans need to be firmly embedded into the Land. This is how revolutionary organising always proceeded in the past. We are a pack animal, we organize organically and spontaneously, we form Internal Relationships this way—and no other way. Think of this as the land-embedded people organizing along the power lines of the Land they are standing on—in the same way as a crystalline semiconductor organising itself internally when deposited onto a substrate, the semiconductor mirrors the substrate’s structure. Both being material entities. We need to figure out how to organize physically-present agents of the revolution. Teach-ins, dancing, smoking—whatever. Absolutely no face-time or zoom. We need to leave the university campuses behind, they have become toxic.