(no subject)
I just got my hair cut. It looks mostly the same but shorter and less shaggy. Sunny the guy who cut it was all, "when did you cut your hair last???" The best part is he did it for free, well, I got him a hamburger and a cup of coffee so mostly free. It's a little shorter than I like it but at least now it will grow out more evenly, you know what I'm sayin?
So I work with this guy Justin and have been getting into some fairly heated discussions with him at work and via MySpace. It started with me saying how I'm not all that crazy about Noam Chomsky and he was all, "what!? why not?!" So I talked about how in my experience folks who get way into intellectualized politics often are disconnected from the way those issues are super personal. I have a lot of experiences with guys, mostly white straight guys, who get alllllll into political theory and can debate it all day long but when it comes down to the nitty gritty personal shit that those theories analyze they don't know what to do. For example-getting all worked up about Chomksy and his theories of US imperialsm and fucked up foreign policy but not really being able to connect to how fucked up US foreign policy actually concretely affects the working class or folks of color. I'm not saying that studying that shit and approaching problems rationally isn't important but I just feel like there's often a disconnect between the intellectualized and personal experience. Anyway, Justin and I are arguing about this and I think he basically doesn't get what I'm saying because he's now trying to prove to me that atrocities are being committed incessantly in other countries-which is totally not what we're talking about and kinda out of left field. Anyway. I was thinking of how Justin said that if it weren't for reading he'd still be a crazy hateful conservative. Great, reading worked in his personal growth-it doesn't for me. I was just thinking of how we were arguing about this political culture of intellectual political pontificating vs. personal experience and it's really about what we connect to. All of my challenges and growth have come about through hands on organizing, interacting with people who are directly impacted by issues some people just read about. My personal growth has also come thru struggling with my queerness and racial identity-not thru reading and discussion groups. Again, those things are important and have a valuable place in culture. But for me texts and lectures have not played a strong role in challenging or developing my own radical and anti-oppressive politics ("radical" meaning far left, not as in awesome or the coolest ever).
I'm off to finish watching the L Word. It's so bad but I love it. Does anyone else love Beauty and the Geek?!
So I work with this guy Justin and have been getting into some fairly heated discussions with him at work and via MySpace. It started with me saying how I'm not all that crazy about Noam Chomsky and he was all, "what!? why not?!" So I talked about how in my experience folks who get way into intellectualized politics often are disconnected from the way those issues are super personal. I have a lot of experiences with guys, mostly white straight guys, who get alllllll into political theory and can debate it all day long but when it comes down to the nitty gritty personal shit that those theories analyze they don't know what to do. For example-getting all worked up about Chomksy and his theories of US imperialsm and fucked up foreign policy but not really being able to connect to how fucked up US foreign policy actually concretely affects the working class or folks of color. I'm not saying that studying that shit and approaching problems rationally isn't important but I just feel like there's often a disconnect between the intellectualized and personal experience. Anyway, Justin and I are arguing about this and I think he basically doesn't get what I'm saying because he's now trying to prove to me that atrocities are being committed incessantly in other countries-which is totally not what we're talking about and kinda out of left field. Anyway. I was thinking of how Justin said that if it weren't for reading he'd still be a crazy hateful conservative. Great, reading worked in his personal growth-it doesn't for me. I was just thinking of how we were arguing about this political culture of intellectual political pontificating vs. personal experience and it's really about what we connect to. All of my challenges and growth have come about through hands on organizing, interacting with people who are directly impacted by issues some people just read about. My personal growth has also come thru struggling with my queerness and racial identity-not thru reading and discussion groups. Again, those things are important and have a valuable place in culture. But for me texts and lectures have not played a strong role in challenging or developing my own radical and anti-oppressive politics ("radical" meaning far left, not as in awesome or the coolest ever).
I'm off to finish watching the L Word. It's so bad but I love it. Does anyone else love Beauty and the Geek?!