M-L-M Mayhem!

In an effort to catch up on professional development, I've spent the past month immersed in the work of philosophers/theorists that are deemed important.  Maybe it's because I was partially trained in "analytic philosophy" that I am somewhat allergic to the ways in which "continental philosophy" is articulated, but damn I'm yet again annoyed by the fact that I'm reading thinkers who seem to be intentionally resisting interpretation, and who generate followers because of this resistance.  I was trained to care about arguments, clarity, and at least a vague recognition of logical structure… Which is why I tend to be confused when "philosophers" who resist clarity, who can't be bothered to conceptualize their positions according to argument, tend to be celebrated.  Of course this celebration tends to happen outside of the discipline of philosophy, which usually resists these chic theorists, in theory programs, literary studies, or what-hav

So the Seth Rogen and James Franco film, The Interview , will not be released in the theatres this December because hackers .  Boo-fucking-hoo.  The popular, common sense narrative is that this hacking was a DPRK job, but so what?  The film is some asinine comedy about two Americans travelling to North Korea to assassinate Kim Jong Un, replete with the requisite "chinaman" racism (as the trailer made it very clear with its yellow peril "ching-chong-strawhat-buckteeth" chauvinism), and what existent nation would ever tolerate a mainstream and international film promoting it dissolution as a nation?  Can you imagine a film comedically celebrating the assassination of the US president?  You should, because it would be awesome, but the moment you imagine it you would also have to imagine its non-existence, the feds showing up at your door if you were part of such a project, or the country guilty of making such a movie being subjected to sanctions.  Which are far worse,

For those interested in all things my daughter, I have started a non-serious, and possibly overly "cute", tumblr entitled Toddler Curates Library .  Starting a tumblr account was interesting; in fact I've always been interested in the whole tumblr thing (that somewhere between twitter and wordpress  feeling it gives me) ever since quotes from some of my articles were posted and reposted on innumerable tumblr sites.  Indeed, I've chosen to follow on my tumblr account (because you have to) at least one of the tumblr bloggers, pomeranian privilege , who has recently quoted me . Anyhow, the theme of my blog-lite is simply to take pictures of the books my daughter takes from the adult bookshelves (she does this a lot) and what she does with them.  Since the combined library of my partner and myself is pretty large (and in our cramped living space results in bookshelves all over the place), and also somewhat eclectic (we can't say no to used books given to us and have

My first experience with actual activism, just when I was deciding I was an anarchist and trying to figure out what that meant, was in an organization that equated political radicalism with anti-consumerism.  This was precisely what Murray Bookchin, who I would later come to love in the twilight years of my anarchism, would have deemed lifestyle anarchism  but at the time I was just a kid who wanted to make a difference and this kind of politics appeared compelling.  Specifically, I was part of "Students Against Sweat Shops" (or SASS because it was so sassy !) that, without any analysis of imperialism, treated the problem of the export of capital as something that could be defeated by fair trade policies and a refusal to buy sweat shop made commodities.  Although I eventually grew up and quit being even a mature anarchist, apparently so many others remain trapped at this stage of infantile anti-consumerism.  This kind of politics is possibly endearing when it is practiced by

A little over a month ago, when I was perusing my ragged copy of the Grundrisse , I decided to google the translator/introducer of the official English edition, Martin Nicolaus.  After all, the Grundrisse had made something of an impact on me nearly a decade ago when I was starting my Masters degree as one of the texts that, by re-presenting Marx's project, brought me out of anarchism and into the marxist fold.  Therefore, when I was looking at it again (and laughing with some embarrassment at my younger self's marginalia), I was curious about the man responsible for its translation and thorough introduction. The official edition of Grundrisse  that was translated, edited, and introduced by Martin Nicolaus. As it turns out, and much to my surprise, Nicolaus has re-invented himself as a self-help guru .  And no, this is not the website of another Martin Nicolaus; on the aforelinked site's blog, Nicolaus has written various entries about his work as the Grundrisse'

As much as we all like to complain about hipsters (including so-called hipsters), hip trends tend to insinuate themselves in every context.  Academia, for example, whose participants imagine themselves beyond the common hipster culture of clothing fashion, is not immune to this problem.  Theory tends to develop in cycles of hipness, and one can chart the development of various journals and institutions––what is being published, what projects are considered worthy, who is getting a job––based on what is in  at a given time and place. Having been a part of academia for a decent amount of time, I've had the opportunity to observe and sometimes dabble in a variety of chic theoretical fashion currents.  And though my general concerns are mostly such that I have doomed myself to being "left behind" by the tides of fashion, there are a few moments where my concerns have happened, luckily or unluckily, to overlap with what happens to be in fashion, or a few years out of fashion

An international comrade of mine recently argued that communist movements need to seriously consider the necessity of "branding" themselves in a systematic manner.  After all, the masses are aware of bourgeois companies due to a process of marketing and branding that has instilled logos, catch-phrases, product concepts, and commodity ideas on their very consciousness: innumerable people are aware of what it means to facebook  or google  someone, just as they are aware of the logos of these corporations––we can cite countless examples.  Thus, if communism is seeking to achieve cultural hegemony and make its ideological position known in a context where the ruling ideas of the ruling class are often codified by a commercial sensibility, it must also find a way to insinuate itself within a discourse that people have been socialized to understand as the primary mode of comprehension. Let's be honest: communism isn't always the most "hip" ethos, even for those

One of the reasons I stopped being an anarchist was because, due to anarchism's often unquestioned utopianism, I was incapable of theorizing a mechanism that could suppress reactionaries.  Instead I wanted to believe that a revolution, if it was truly a revolution, would somehow convince those reactionaries who were too cowardly to fight and die for their beliefs in the moment of revolutionary upheaval, would somehow be convinced of the righteousness of the cause.  I believed that any attempt to build a state capable of legislating against their behaviour would be authoritarian and that this legislation, amounting to "Stalinist gulags", was also counter-revolutionary. This is indeed an extreme form of utopianism because it is premised on the idea that there is some root and nebulous human nature that, once we remove the authoritative mechanisms, would flourish and immediately evolve into something entirely socialistic.  Humans would become as they really are (as if the

Here is the final page of the Tao of Mao ABCs .  Although it might not be the strongest ending (Z was difficult––I almost went with "Zinoviev"!), at least it's finished.  Now I can get back to writing substantial entries without having to worry about finishing this project.  Who knows when this sad little comic strip will return. Letters W - Z [If you have enjoyed this comic series, or even passed it along to friends out of sheer disgust, please feel free to donate to this blog !]

Here is the fourth page of the comic, offensively humorous as usual.  Only one more page after this, and then I will return to more substantial and sober-minded posts.  Just remember: if you're offended, it's probably about you! Letters  R to V.

Due to the time it takes to lay-out this [hopefully] hilarious alphabet, I figure that I can get several posts out of it and thus save me the time of having to write something sober and substantial this week.  Although I provided two pages for the first post––mainly because it had been years since I provided interested readers with a return to the Tao of Mao  comic strip––each successive post, including this one, will be a single page.  Hence: five pages in four posts. So here is page three which consists of the letters M  through Q.   Enjoy! Tao of Mao ABCs: letters M - Q

The other day I encountered a lefty ABC s board book aimed at children entitled "A is for Activism".  After perusing its contents and discovering that it was generally left-liberal nonsense, with some abstract anarchism here and there ("Z is for Zapatista"), I decided I would write my own ABC  rhyming book where the letters accorded to more precise leftist concepts.  After all, I have a daughter and I would like an ABC board book capable of teaching her difficult concepts, or at least with funny rhymes that would make her want to discuss these difficult concepts, from the hard left tradition. While I was writing my ABC s book, however, I kept thinking up semi-sectarian, leftist in-joke rhymes that were generally inappropriate for the kind of book I wanted to write.  I mean, I wanted a book that would introduce my kid to general concepts of the communism to which I ascribe and not filled with arcane movement jokes and insults.  Even still, I couldn't help think

Samir Amin once remarked that people who want to change society for the better generally have better ideas than people who want to preserve the status quo––for if society, in a world historical sense, is defined by change than those who deny change will have static and repetitive ideas that are out of step with reality.  I've recently been contemplating this axiom in regards to values.  Namely, the fact that bourgeois values as a whole are boring and that those values beyond the threshold of capitalism seem far more interesting and exciting.  This is partly because I'm a new father and, in the process of just starting to raise my child, have encountered those values that are the hallmark of the bourgeois family.  And despite my general rejection of these values out of political principle, I also want to reject them because I actually find them extremely boring and do not think my child would have much fun being raised according to normative bourgeois values. Despite all t

Two nights in a row, when I was out drinking with comrades, someone has started a conversation about the hotness of young Stalin.  Is this simply a coincidence or is there something in the leftist networking world (i.e. facebook, from which I am still successfully abstaining) I've missed?  For it seems rather odd, in the context of the default and generally uncritical anti-Stalinism that affects the western left , that people would be exchanging pictures of young Stalin. Apparently, now people cannot avoid the fact of Stalin's 20-30 something hotness.  I mean, even if you're a Trotskyist you cannot deny that young Stalin was hotter and hipper than young Trotsky––who looked like, let's be clear, a maladjusted basement nerd trying hard to be cool .  Hell, I would like to say that young Stalin was possibly hotter than Lenin but I worry that this would be tantamount to revisionism!  Whatever the case, we cannot deny the uber-hotness of the youthful Stalin in the glory day