I've been thinking lately about the differences between the philosophy of praxis (or, as I prefer, philosophies of praxis, since I think in the present moment a number of strands could be identified, including from outside the Marxist tradition) and philosophy or even theory as professional, academic enterprises. Of late for applications I've been ( Read more... )

Anxious. Starting a “writing retreat” today which is not starting, seemingly. What is in my way? Walking over the threshold into productivity again is hard. Guilt, about how much time I’ve wasted. Not convinced with Bataille and Lafargue and Boscagli that laziness has the potential to be some kind of grand, worthwhile state. In Bataille’s ( Read more... )

Revolutionary time and cyclical, liturgical time are two modes of experiencing time which coexist, layered on top of one another. By "revolutionary time" I do not mean a revolutionary situation in the strict political or social sense; I mean mainly the apparent condensation of time which accompanies a quickening or intensification of events. This ( Read more... )

via tongue firmly in cheek

1. Someone sets himself on fire
2. Someone creates a Facebook event for a "day of rage"
3. Police repression
4. ...
5. Bigger day of rage
6. ...
7. Regime crumbles
8. ...
9. Permanent revolution

I've been so frustrated with the electoral discourse of the US left since 2000. On the one hand there's the moralism of some liberals (if you don't vote for the Democrat you're voting FOR all the evil the Republican would enact!) and the kinda messy strategic thinking of some Maoists and popular frontists (and even some anarchists these days) who ( Read more... )

I'm slightly feverish, so I'm going to use that as an excuse for this being largely incoherent ( Read more... )

Experience of reading Gramsci this time: almost too much. On the one hand, the way he cares about certain things is close enough to how I care about them that reading him makes my mind much sharper. It's like reading a sharper version of myself (obviously from a different historical period, grander scale, perhaps the scale and the stakes are so ( Read more... )

Haven't been on LJ much lately. If you want more Fodder, I've been writing recently for the Solidarity Webzine and our campus grad student organizing committee against budget cuts, fee hikes, declining access, and austerity in public education. Check it out!

Next quarter I'm teaching my own class for the first time. It's called "Philosophies of ( Read more... )

I did two major fellowship applications last week, the first "major" ones for which I've done any kind of semi-serious application while in grad school. I have to say, the inertia I faced down trying to get going on them was terrible enough that at a couple of moments I contemplated literally banging my head into a wall - but, once I actually ( Read more... )

I used to follow some of the liberation theologians (particularly Segundo on this?) in upholding the idea of the primacy of orthopraxis (right action) to orthodoxy (right thinking).  It's important to recognize what a radical move this was within a Catholic context, and it was one which (at least as an explicit theological notion) got torpedoed ( Read more... )