tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post6089634540276284863..comments2024-03-29T03:19:09.227-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: REPORT FROM THE FIELD [SO TO SPEAK]Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-67221102881441950152011-10-12T04:14:07.281-04:002011-10-12T04:14:07.281-04:00Bob (If I may), I know you said this before about ...Bob (If I may), I know you said this before about the small number of people who actually have college degrees. And you are right to repeat it. I've mentioned it to people and they were surprised--hence the accuracy of your observation about what public discourse presumes.<br />Anyway, thank you for pointing it out, because though it is (in one way) a small thing, it helps me frame things.formerly a wage slavehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16064562730082906589noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-76710457043094050962011-10-11T17:40:44.696-04:002011-10-11T17:40:44.696-04:00America is increasingly two worlds, and the clued ...America is increasingly two worlds, and the clued in world, with internet, credit, and all the rest [FaceBook, Twitter, whatever] rarely actually talks with the world that does not. It is just one of many, many reasons why truly progressive mobilizing is so difficult.<br /><br />Just as an example: only 30% of adults over 25 have college degrees, and yet the public discourse assumes that everyone does.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-8633562638833249022011-10-11T16:46:35.693-04:002011-10-11T16:46:35.693-04:00About buying through Amazon: does everyone in the...About buying through Amazon: does everyone in the USA have a credit card? About reading Marx online: does everyone in the USA have the Internet? (I certainly know a postal worker who doesn't, and the guy who comes to give my elderly father a shower doesn't have the internet, nor, I believe, does the nurse who visits him once a week to take his vitals.)formerly a wage slavehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16064562730082906589noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-78756266454547479562011-10-11T08:59:50.892-04:002011-10-11T08:59:50.892-04:00The whole of Marx is on line, so sales on Amazon a...The whole of Marx is on line, so sales on Amazon are unlikely to reflect interest..., eg<br />http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htm<br /><br />While I am not a marxist myself, I recommend <br /><br />http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/index.htm<br />http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/index.htm<br /><br />as the closest approximation in Marx to the current situation in the US..<br />-mwnllmwhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01040947914337007120noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-46011121006133439902011-10-10T22:14:46.756-04:002011-10-10T22:14:46.756-04:00The anthropologist Robin Dunbar makes the followin...The anthropologist Robin Dunbar makes the following claim in his "Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language" (Faber and Faber 1996, 2004, p. 122):<br />"Even allowing a minimal shoulder-to-shoulder distance of six inches, a circle five foot in diameter would place would place an upper limit of about seven on the number of people who can hear what a speaker is saying." He goes on to note that as background noise and distance increase, the number of people who can actually hear the speaker decreases.<br />Having taught philosophy before I read that, I concluded after the fact that the difficulty of having a discussion was as much due to the problem of group size as to any lack of interest among class members.<br /><br />I don't know about the Communist Manifesto, but I did recently purchase "Capital" Volume One, which i've never owned and never read. I am an unemployed Ph.D. (Philosophy) who spent thirteen years working outside of the USA. (I apologize if I've said that before.) --It sounds to me like the beginning of my entry for the website "wearethe99percent"....formerly a wage slavehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16064562730082906589noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-46874784666839815142011-10-10T14:43:48.736-04:002011-10-10T14:43:48.736-04:00Oh, I agree wholeheartedly. I also sympathize with...Oh, I agree wholeheartedly. I also sympathize with your discomfort. I pretty much just stand about awkwardly at these things, but I figure they need as many bodies on the ground as they can get. <br /><br />Also, giving money is in no way a cop-out. When the occupation proper gets started these people will need food, and blankets, and clean socks. They will need bottled water and baby wipes. They will also, (unfortunately perhaps) need smokes. Someone has to pay for this stuff.J.R.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06486343927258998646noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-47738005581126777272011-10-10T14:30:03.830-04:002011-10-10T14:30:03.830-04:00The nice thing about genuine social movements is t...The nice thing about genuine social movements is that they are messy, heterogeneous, and blurred around the edges, leaving room for many sorts of people. I am not a gregarious person, and I actually feel uncomfortable at meetings like the one I attended yesterday, but I figure there is some role I can play, even if it is only to write about things and give money. As I was leaving [early], I gave $100 to the young woman who had bought and was distributing eleven boxes of pizza. One might think of that as a cop-out, but what the hell, someone has to pay for the pizza, so it might as well be me.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-79773703737929289692011-10-10T13:52:12.701-04:002011-10-10T13:52:12.701-04:00Thank you so much for your lengthy and considered ...Thank you so much for your lengthy and considered reply yesterday. (I had no idea you knew Marcuse, though perhaps I should have guessed.)<br /><br />Really what I was after though, is what a philosophical anarchist and old hand in social movements thought of how things worked on the ground. You provided that today. <br /><br />I have some reservations about consensus models, my past experience with them is that they end up placing immense social pressure on people to "just go along" with whatever is proposed, because, as you mentioned, the ability to block places an "enourmous responsibility on the shoulders of the objector." This can have the unfortunate consequence of stifling internal dissent. <br /><br />On a more positive note, the whole thing reminds me a bit of the Athenian assembly, and is quite fun.<br /><br />I should note though, that despite my reservations, I attend all the meetings of my local group that I can, and march in solidarity with them.J.R.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06486343927258998646noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-64089306066955442852011-10-10T13:36:23.127-04:002011-10-10T13:36:23.127-04:00The man introducing himself as Anonymous probably ...The man introducing himself as Anonymous probably was a member of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group)" rel="nofollow">Anonymous</a>, an <a href="http://anonops.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">Internet-based</a> anarchist <a href="http://www.whatis-theplan.org/forum" rel="nofollow">group</a>, that is largely inspired by Alan Moore's <i>V for Vendetta</i>.<br /><br />And thanks for the account-I probably should find my local group, if only to see what is going on. Exciting times (hopefully)!Nickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17757157459780259514noreply@blogger.com