t byfield on 25 Feb 2001 21:26:18 -0000


[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: <nettime> In Defence of Cultural Studies aka Debord and nostalgia



mw35@nyu.edu (Sun 02/25/01 at 02:19 AM -0500):

> <...> Gee, messing up billboards. Not much to write home about.

as opposed to writing books, of course, which is something to 'write home
about,' right? write. right. write. right. &c. &c.

> <...> As for 'coherent views of history' -- look where those have 
> gotten us. They surely belong in the dustbin of history. <...>

i think you've misstated the problem; perhaps i can be of help.

if your descendants are as forgiving of you as you are of your
predecessors, where do you suppose your incoherent view of his- tory will
end up? n.b. that i haven't even disagreed with you-- at least i needn't
do so to ask that question. and how exactly is this historical dustbin of
yours constructed if theories of history are (or should be) incoherent?

> <...> As Croce asked, 'what is living and what is dead' in the 
> Hegelian legacy? Perhaps it is time for some accounting -- not 
> least for past failures. Who won the elections in France after 
> May 68? The Gaulists, by a landslide.

i think you've answered your own question: dialectics is dead-- at least
in your view.

cheers,
t
-

The public's attitude is that while mystification may be counterfeit
currency, it's better than having no money at all.  --Jean Dubuffet




#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net