Re: <nettime> Piran / Zero Work

[t byfield <tbyfield@panix.com>]

On Mon 06/02/97 at 10:48 PM, Richard Barbrook wrote:

> So let me counter-quote from Fred Engels writing about anarchists to Paul
> Lafargue (30/12/1871):
>  
> "All these fine ultra-radical and revolutionary phrases merely serve to
> conceal the utter poverty of ideas and the most complete ignorance of the
> conditions in which the daily life of society is carried on."

Indeed. Unfortunately, it was Marx much more than Engels who
mastered immanent critique; so it was Engels, much more than
Marx, who was given over to silly proclamations like the one
you've quoted. One can announce that life as it's lived is a
state of continual revolution, or one can denounce the lives
we lead for failing to be revolutionary; neither claim bears
much effect, but both privilege the shining ideal of revolu-
tion over what it champions, i.e., life as we would live it.

Ted 
---
#  distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@icf.de and "info nettime" in the msg body
#  URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/  contact: nettime-owner@icf.de