Ganter —•— M-I: Grammatical Clique/Bourgeois Populism

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  TEXT VERSION: M-I

See also: M-TH: Grammatical Clique/Bourgeois Populism   (post by Ralph Dumain)

See also: M-TH: Grammatical Clique/Bourgeois Populism   (post by Louis N Proyect)

See also: M-TH: Re: M-I: Grammatical Clique/Bourgeois Populism   (post by Scott McLemee)

See also: Re: M-I: Grammatical Clique/Bourgeois Populism   (post by Carrol Cox)

See also: M-TH: Re: M-I: Grammatical Clique/Bourgeois Populism   (post by Doug Henwood)

See also: M-TH: Re: M-I: Grammatical Clique/Bourgeois Populism   (post by Brad Rothrock)

See also: Grad School Neurosis (Was Re: M-I: Grammatical Clique/Bourgeois   (post by Yoshie Furuhashi)

See also: Re: Fwd: M-TH: Re: M-I: Grammatica...Playing Word Games   (post by Carrol Cox)

See also: Re: M-TH: Re: M-I: Grammatica...Playing Word Games   (post by Brad Rothrock)

From owner-marxism-international
Date: Thu, 3 Apr 1997 22:59:36 -0500 (EST)
From: Brian M Ganter <bmganter@acsu.buffalo.edu>
Subject: M-I: Grammatical Clique/Bourgeois Populism

— — — — — — — — — — 
Revolutionary Marxist Collective at U of Buffalo:

Bourgeois populism has invaded Marxism to such an extent that now the test of “truth” of a theory has become its “readability”. Both Louis Proyect and Doug Henwood deploy the vocabulary test against our writings and Proyect goes even to such a laughable length as to defend the Monthly Review crowd on the basis that they reach more people than we do. By this very test Ralph Reed, Newt Gingrich and the entire Republican Party is much more “revolutionary” than Monthly Review press since Ralph Reed and Co. reach a crowd a million times larger than the publications of Monthly Review Press and the net writings of Proyect combined. Proyect's pathetic efforts to represent his reminiscences as revolutionary theory reach an absurd level when he uses Lenin's term “ultraleft” to justify his establishment leftism. To use Lenin's notion of ultraleft as an alibi of conserativism is in fact a new breakthrough in the reformist left (and Proyect calls for “historical context” when we speak of Weitling!). Furthermore: Doug Henwood should keep in mind we are philosophers and not journalists. We are not writing for his newsletter (Left Business Observer)... we are not in the “business” of selling but in putting forth the project of

R E D

CRITIQUE

Left Business Observer cannot respond to Derrida's assault on revolutionary practices in “Specters of Marx”. Louis Proyects' [sic.] memoirs are no match for Deleuze-Guattari's “Thousand Plateaus” (just to give the names of two of the books he must eventually run into in his never-ending search for books to review... ).... The grammatical sectarianism of this anti-intellectualist grouping will never allow it to rigorously engage with and critique the world-historical situation along with the bourgeois theories of knowledge that are emerging to mystify capitalism today (knowledges which are given ample space on this very web site for one).

We want to point out here that the publication of “Performative Left: A Red Critique of the Theatre called 'Between Capitalism and Democracy'" by the RMC at Buffalo has “shell-shocked” the left on the net. Andrew Austin expresses this “shock” by asking “Where in the hell did this post come from?" and makes it clear that he is not asking about the “geographical” origin of the post. The left does not comprehend “Where in the hell the post came from” because it has for such a long time amused itself with the fluff of what it calls “activism”—a melange of nostalgia, moralization, faded pictures of scenes past. The publication of RMC/Buffalo's text has been treated by this left as an earthquake, and as in all earthquakes, what has followed is panic and running for cover... the cover of “your typography is wrong... therefore I am deleting you and freeing myself from having to understand you”... the cover of “style”, “vocabulary”, “prose,".... The problem is however, that none of these covers covers. The time has come to stake out a space for revolutionary Marxist theory and the Red Critique of RMC-Buffalo is an attempt to do exactly that. Therefore we declare to this philosophically bankrupt left: stop whining and start reading!! Learn to read CONCEPTUALLY—not the New York Times or the Left Business Review but learn to read philosophy. Learn to read. A Marxist who cannot read is a bourgeois functionary masquerading as a revolutionary! Out then with the technicalities and formal protests of the GRAMMATICAL CLIQUE — those who CANNOT READ THEORETICALLY and who mask their illiteracy with the formal logistics of grammar. We do not need to hear (again) the endless lessons on vocabulary, prose, style or any of the other alibis that this left grammatical clique (Henwood, Proyect, Cox, Dumain, Schwartz and so on... don't forget Alan Sokal, the ringleader of contemporary bourgeois populism who also substitutes grammatical proprieties for theory—FOR LEARNING TO READ) is invoking against Red Critique.

No more alibis against the rigorous

conceptuality of Marxist theory!

For Red Critique not populist reminiscing!

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