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mm: i think i reacted to what i saw as a kind of defaulting into the middle in the previous post of yours.
thinking of the same thing now, i would probably opt for a more cheery approach to the same basic point: this can be a space to try out arguments, to take chances with them, see if they work, see why they dont, if they dont.
that is why the repetition in roachboy's posts bugs me--and why repetition in the context, in the posts that are available to bounce off of, bothers me: they give plant food to the boredom weed--which grows at a healthy rate without it.
a short defense of longer posts:
i am dispositionally still kind of marxist: i dont think you can separate economic activity from social activity in general; the notion of mode of production is pretty powerful; class remains a significant category, even if its political valences are no longer obvious; ideology critique is a fundamental political activity, etc. none of this can get started without a view of history. the only real problem with making this style of argument is that it is not easy to be pithy. things have to be explained simply because the usual ideological framing of questions is an element of the problem, an extension of it, or worse is the enabling condition of the problem (x, whatever)...so you have to move outside that frame to get started, and the first move is generally to relativize the ideological claims--and then from there to chipping away at how variables are defined, hierarchies determined, etc. you can be pretty precise about what you are doing, why and how: but it is hard to do anything interesting in short form, i find. power point stylee doesnt cut it. less is in fact less.
so i dont.
i understand that folk are busy--i am too--but, seriously, less is just less.
explain your positions. you think it anyway when you write short things. just say it. if folk are pressed, they dont have to read it. if they aren;t, maybe they will. no sense in presuming everyone always operates at a single rate. not even assembly lines manage that.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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