Are They? (was Re: Human Interactions)

[Michel Ryckx]

calbert at tiac.net wrote: (...)
"I get the feeling that Pynchon would just as readily "send up" utopians of
Gramsci's stripe as he would those of a more reactionary school....and a "we
system" is always a "their system" to whomever is outside...and someone will
ALWAYS be "outside"... love, cfa"

Since A. Gramsci turns up again:  he was trying to find an answer to this
question:
'What is the role performed by intellectuals in my society (the Italian Fascist
state of the twenties -he did his surveys while in prison, eventually died
there)."  He wanted to know why a lot of his teachers, people he knew, fellow
journalists ended in supporting Mussolini.
His answer was a very complex one:
1. As a Marxist, he knew that economy in the end (repeat: in the end) sets the
margins for (political and) cultural  life.
2. This process is not automatic
3. The role of passing over values of a few to the many is mainly performed by
intellectuals.  This is what he called 'hegemony'.

Before shooting me:
When an intelligent Marxist (they exist, though hardly) points something out, he
means: 'there is a tendency that...'  That is why I say: in the end, or: mainly.
Besides, I am not an intelligent Marxist.

love too.
Michel