Re: <nettime> Why I say the things I say

[Brian Holmes <bhcontinentaldrift@gmail.com>]

Long live Thorstein Veblen! The shining light of radical sociology on 
the Left.

On 05/08/2012 01:54 AM, Keith Hart wrote:

> I think the main difference between Brian and me is that he wants to
> engage personally with the politics of our moment in history and this
> comes across sometimes as being myopic (which he is not), whereas I
> want to get a sense of the global picture and that makes me rather
> detached about the politics. I do think we are entering a period of
> war and revolution that could be as long as the neoliberal phase...

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Keith, you are generous in your 
assessment.

For the record, Mr. Myopic, aka "the Keyboard Revolutionary," is doing 
an extensive collaborative project on global political economy over the 
last hundred years or so. It's called "Three Crises: 30s-70s-Today." The 
first phase of it is archived, not on the campus of any university, but 
on the website of a little radical free cultural center:

http://messhall.org/?page_id=771

The idea of this and similar efforts is to eventually be able mount an 
autonomous challenge to intellectual complacency, from a position 
outside the Ivory Towerblocks of contemporary universities. We're not 
there yet -- it would take a whole network of similar efforts -- but the 
movement is growing. Note among others the archive of written texts and 
the bibliography and readings. Some food for thought and maybe even 
material for agitation.

Because of exactly the imperative for political engagement that Keith 
talks about, this first iteration of Three Crises is focused on the 
United States -- whose place as the hegemonic power of the 20th century 
makes that focus partially necessary anyway. However I do want to 
enlarge the focus of this work for its second iteration with Occupy 
Berlin from June 17-23 (yes, under the wings of the infamous Biennial). 
This will be a very intensive series of lectures and discussions on 
which Armin Medosch will collaborate.

One of the things I find so interesting is that right now our 
Euro-American "depression" corresponds with the BRICS' expansion. Just 
as, in the day, the American stagflation of the 70's corresponded with 
the rise of Europe and Japan to the status of equals or at least near 
economic peers of the USA. It is quite dfficult to enlarge the focus of 
political-economic analysis to global dimensions, and even more 
difficult to maintain a political engagement while doing so. But this is 
the challenge of our tumultuous times.

I am still interested in responses to the friend/enemy problem that I 
was raising at the start of this particular thread. Nicholas Knouf gave 
a very thoughtful answer that I'll respond after thinking about it for a 
few days.

best, Brian


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