Michael Yates writes:
>I have rejoined a couple of these lists after a hiatus of several
>months. I am about to retire from my job as a college teacher, after 32
>long and, of late, nearly unbearable years. I have spoken about this
>before, but in my view academe in is a state of paralysis, at least as far
>as it being a center of critical thought and action. ...
The social situation that exists in academia encourages an ideology like
that of Max Weber, that there's an "iron cage" that prevents anything
progressive from being done. (Some, of course, have stopped worrying and
have learned to love the bomb, trying to win the rat-race. Maybe it's akin
to what Wilhelm Reich called the "moral plague.") The worst for me is that
most of the time, I don't teach lefty or radical economics -- because the
students don't want it, not because of the university bureaucracy or my
department or anything like that. Luckily for me, I can vent on pen-l. If
I do so too much, it's because it's necessary to my sanity.
As for academia, it's a job. I've got to support my kid, our mortgage, our
growing debts. At least I sometimes get to do stuff that I enjoy and get
paid for it. I think it's probably a mistake to assume that any job under
capitalism will be non-alienating. However, it would be cool to work in a
bookstore, as long as it's a small independent one (one of those that's
rapidly disappearing from the map).
>... I asked the class what Marx says is the minimum value of labor
>power. A student awoke from a dead sleep (this in a class of ten, all
>sitting around a seminar table) and blurted out "$5.15!!
at least you got an answer.
>I have seriously suggested that our school sell sweatshirts emblazoned
>with the slogan, "Proud to be stupid."
My slogan for them was "if you're so rich, how come you're not smart?"
(This was a response to a student who wanted to know why we should hear
about Adam Smith, Karl Marx, etc. because his rich friends like Justin Dart
don't know that stuff -- he's now a PR flack for the construction company
that's building a mega-project, "Playa Vista," in the wetlands below the
bluff that Loyola Marymount sits on. This threatens not only to destroy the
environment but also to make traffic conditions even worse.)
But beyond that rich twerp, a lot of students seem stupid partly because
they're working many hours per week to pay for college.
>... For example, I periodically teach economics to union folks at
>UMass-Amherst. Now this is supposedly a hotbed of radical economics. Yet
>I fly in form Pittsburgh to teach the class. Where is Bowles or Gintis or
>Wolfe or Resnick or Pollin? Perhaps the pay is not high enough or they
>are away on academic business (the class is taught while most of the
>regular students are on break).
Wolfe & Resnick's followers have always claimed that they are actively
involved in politics. One of the two once ran for mayor of New Haven on a
progressive ticket. (Every on-line debate I've seen about postmodernist
Marxism has involved its defenders pointing to their political involvement.
Not all of their critics are politically involved.)
Pollin is actively involved in the campaign for a living wage. He
integrates his research into his political activism.
I don't know about Bowles, though his textbook (with Edwards) is quite
useful. The less said about Gintis, the better. See his last correspondence
with pen-l, in the archives somewhere.
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
