A moving prism

In this appraisal of historical materialism the peculiarity of Uno's position vis- a-vis other trends of Marxist thought is most clearly seen. The conventional and official view would argue roughly as follows: Marxism has extracted what is to be called dialectical materialism from Hegel's system by "inverting it"; then, the application of this dialectical materialism to social history has created the science of historical materialism; the political economy of capitalism consists of further specification of the principles of historical materialism for the analysis of capitalist society; hence, the discovery of the class-nature of capitalism has made Marxist socialism a science. The conventional view thus fails to distinguish between ideology and science; it even tends to glorify the confusion with the slogan of "the dialectical unity of theory and practice." The more recent and presumably "unofficial" view, inspired by the works of Luk'acs, K...

At the entrance to the university there was an inscription dedicating the campus to the memory of Leland Stanford, Jr., “born to mortality . . . passed to immortality,” a mother’s undying love metamorphosed into an institution of timber beam, plaster walls, reinforced concrete, and carved stone. So we convert our tragedies into objects that will withstand corrosive rain, seismic upheavals, and time. We place memorial urns in the cloisters, a chapel at the heart of it all, columns and commemorative plaques that lift our eyes from the ground. Even our intellectual labor aspires to the condition of permanence and transcendence, though our lives are transitory in comparison, our miseries commonplace, our labors unavailing. I felt a strong desire to testify to the struggle of those who lacked the means to pretend that life was otherwise. In about an hour I would present a paper about the life of a Kuranko woman for whom this place might well appear to be paradise, but ...

- On the Shores of  ‪#‎ Politics‬ , Jacques  ‪#‎ Rancière‬  - page 6

The reform of consciousness consists only in making the world aware of its own consciousness, in awakening it out of its dream about itself, in explainin g to it the meaning of its own actions. Our whole object can only be – as is also the case in Feuerbach’s criticism of religion – to give religious and philosophical questions the form corresponding to man who has become conscious of himself. Hence, our motto must be: reform of consciousness not through dogmas, but by analyzing the mystical consciousness that is unintelligible to itself, whether it manifests itself in a religious or a political form. It will then become evident that the world has long dreamed of possessing something of which it has only to be conscious in order to possess it in reality. It will become evident that it is not a question of drawing a great mental dividing line between past and future, but of realizing the thoughts of the past. Lastly, it will become evident that mankind is not beginning a new wor...

Fruit stall in Shoreditch, London  (Source:  Flickr/Garry Knight ) This inaction hurts the middle-class man. He feels impotent in the blue glare of his computer screen. Unable to do anything useful, alienated from physical labor and plagued by the knowledge that his father could use his hands, and the lower classes still do. Escape, however, is impossible. Ever since the advent of the smartphone the traditional working day has been abolished. Office workers are at the constant mercy of email, a culture of overwork and a digitalization of work. Your job can be done anytime, anywhere and this is exactly what capital demands. Refuge can only be found in sleep, another domain which capital is  determined to control . And when the middle classes are awake and working, they cannot even show contempt for their jobs. Affective (or emotional) labor has always been a part of nursing and prostitution, be it fluffing pillows or faking orgasms, but now it has infected both the ...

» A sparrow limps past on its little bone crutch saying I am Federico Garcia Lorca risen from the dead– literature will lose, sunlight will win, don’t worry.  - From Publication date, Franz Wright

Angelus Novus, Paul Klee, 1920 My wing is ready to fly I would rather turn back For had I stayed mortal time I would have had little luck. – Gerhard Scholem, “Angelic Greetings” There is a painting by Klee called Angelus Novus. An angel is depicted there who looks as though he were about to distance himself from something which he is staring at. His eyes are opened wide, his mouth stands open and his wings are outstretched. The Angel of History must look just so. His face is turned towards the past. Where we see the appearance of a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe, which unceasingly piles rubble on top of rubble and hurls it before his feet. He would like to pause for a moment so fair [verweilen: a reference to Goethe’s Faust], to awaken the dead and to piece together what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise, it has caught itself up in his wings and is so strong that the Angel can no longer close them. The storm drives him irresistibly into the future,...