On Mon, Jan 5, 2026 at 02:27 AM, hari kumar wrote: > > You dismiss the: "Lost in the media-mediated fixation on the "attic fire > in the Latin Quarter" >
I shouldn't have assumed universal familiarity with the expression from Walter Benjamin's " The Storyteller ( https://arl.human.cornell.edu/linked%20docs/Walter%20Benjamin%20Storyteller.pdf )." "Villemessant, the founder of Le Figaro , characterized the nature of information in a famous formulation. 'To my readers,' he used to say, 'an attic fire in the Latin Quarter is more important than a revolution in Madrid.'" The essay contains a wonderful critique of "information" as inferior to storytelling. A more recent phrase expressing the same idea is Gil Scott-Heron's "the revolution will not be televised." > > You will not be able to stay home, brother > You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out > You will not be able to lose yourself on skag > And skip out for beer during commercials, because > The revolution will not be televised > The revolution will not be televised > > The revolution will not be brought to you > By Xerox in four parts without commercial interruptions > The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon blowing a bugle > And leading a charge by John Mitchell, General Abrams, and Spiro Agnew > To eat hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary > The revolution will not be televised (etc.) ( > https://lyrics.lyricfind.com/lyrics/gil-scott-heron-the-revolution-will-not-be-televised > ) > The corollory to Scott-Heron's aphorism is that the counter-revolution will be televised. In fact it is televised 24/7. So my comment about the attic fire was directed at giving exclusive or overwhelming attention to arguing with and about the news. The attic fire in the Latin Quarter is the counter-revolution. What are you even talking about, " in numerous posts over the years dumped on the improvement in the situation of the working class under their party"? Can you show me even one of these "numerous posts"? There are none. You mentioned your " latest paper on Maduro's abduction" but you give no links to it. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#40030): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/40030 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/117080199/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
