i would tend to agree. (4.00 / 1)

one can have a debate if the tool is being misappropriated or not.  thats fine.  but the fact that its being employed in the first place is the key.  let the other bloggers swim in the shallow end of the pool.  one of this sites strengths, and paul's in particular, is the attempt to engage psychology and philosophy.  its the specific reason why i have been coming here more frequently, and have been putting down the "he said, she said," knee-jerk nonsense of other dark and dingy corners of the web.

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by: M.B.S.S. @ Sun Mar 29, 2009 at 17:29:24 PM UTC

Good point! (4.00 / 1)

"one can have a debate if the tool is being misappropriated or not."

I agree. It would have behooved some of Mr. Rosenberg's critics to improve his psychological analysis, instead of simply dissing it and scooting away.

The United States is swarming with more professors that the total number of inhabitants of Periclean Athens, or Paris in the 18th Century, and yet out of our whole great City of Academe, nothing emerges into public discourse except a murmur of mutual contradictions, and the vain assurances of an infinite number of sub-specialists that nothing sensible can be asserted on any subject, unless all their dissertations appear in the footnotes.

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by: Jacob Freeze @ Sun Mar 29, 2009 at 17:48:46 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Typo! (correction and truncation) (0.00 / 0)

The United States is swarming with more professors than the total number of inhabitants of Periclean Athens or Paris in the 18th Century, and yet out of our whole great City of Academe, nothing emerges into public discourse except a murmur of mutual contradictions.

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by: Jacob Freeze @ Sun Mar 29, 2009 at 18:01:39 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

A learned note! (0.00 / 0)

All that was missing in Mr. Rosenberg's analysis of Mike Doogan's character was a little etymology, and behold!

The first definition of a "doogan" that comes up with a google search, in the Urban Dictionary, is...

"A penis, male reproductive organ."

How's that for a "learnèd reference!"

Doogan is a dick!

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by: Jacob Freeze @ Sun Mar 29, 2009 at 19:16:46 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Ooh, ooh, ooh! (0.00 / 0)

I'm re-re-reading Dialectic of Enlightenment right now for a conference paper,  own at least one book by each of these folks, and Veblen and I share an alma mater (separated by 100+ years).

I only mention all this because I am having a radically insecure afternoon and am in need of validation.  

See, all of us resort to "amateur" psychology.  We can't help it.  Freud (in particular) has completely polluted our discourse such that we turn to it for collective narrative understanding in the same way that people of previous épistémè would to mythological/religious reference.  

Shorter me:  For what it's worth, I agree with you Jacob.

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by: JBen @ Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 00:17:52 AM UTC

Mon semblable! Mon frère! (4.00 / 1)

I don't know which of Veblen's several alma maters you share with him, but if it's Carleton we probably know some of the same people. I spent a couple of years in Northfield working on an environmental project involving Sheldahl, while Paul Wellstone was still at Carleton.  What a beautiful little town!

The Dialectic of Enlightenment sits right in the middle of everything I think about culture/society/politics, and if you expand the Frankfurt School to include Walter Benjamin, and follow that connection to Hannah Arendt, that just about covers me. I more or less never watch a movie or consume any other cultural artefact without feeling some resonance from Adorno/Horkheimer's great chapter about the Culture Industry.

If you send me an email to jacobfreeze at gmail dot com maybe we can talk more about the "idiosyncratic intellectual baggage" we share and maybe even a few friends we have in common.

Thanks for posting!

(It may be worth mentioning, in case anyone outside the magic Frankfurt circle ever looks at these comments, that Critical Theory is only one of many different schools of thought which would make American political discourse infinitely richer and deeper, if any significant fraction of us were familiar enough with any of them to communicate over a network of concepts, instead of links to atomized trivia.)

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by: Jacob Freeze @ Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 01:55:54 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Sadly (4.00 / 1)

Paul was elected to Senate two years before I got to Carleton but his presence was still strongly felt on campus.  Although, there was always talk that some of the PoliSci faculty had worked on his campaign solely for the chance of being rid of him.  Jerks.  What a loss for us all, Paul's death.

I'm shocked and amazed that you spent time in that frozen town of cows, colleges, and contentment.  

How could one not include Benjamin?  I'm reading The Arcades Project for pleasure, but I don't make enough time for it, and I find his Theses on the Philosophy of History deeply inspiring.  My interests are in political theory, ethics, and hermeneutics so Arendt is one of my guiding lights as well.  

I will certainly drop you a line and would be thrilled to hear any and all your thoughts on Critical Theory and anything else.  Thanks!

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by: JBen @ Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 02:52:35 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Speaking of Adorno (4.00 / 1)

http://www.truthout.org/032909C

You see, you're prescient!  Here's hoping so, anyway.

Of course, FeralCat's quickhit tipped me to it.

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by: JBen @ Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 03:58:56 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Chris Hedges! (0.00 / 0)

I'm always happy to be on the same page with the great war correspondent Chris Hedges, and the excellent essay you linked is sort of a departure for him. His personal experience and reflection on it are so profound that I have to say he doesn't really need much in the way secondary influences, even as eminent as Adorno. Achilles already thought about the Trojan War without reading Homer.

At the very end of that essay Hedges also quotes a much better founded example of the sort of psychologizing that I defended in Roseberg's article...

"It is especially difficult to fight against (people like Summers, Geithner, and Paulson)," warned Adorno, "because those manipulative people, who actually are incapable of true experience, for that very reason manifest an unresponsiveness that associates them with certain mentally ill or psychotic characters, namely schizoids."

Hedges wrote the best (IMHO) single article about Kucinich, who was also my candidate, during the Democratic primaries: One True Voice on the Trail.

Somehow so many other people decided to support obviously dishonest candidates like Clinton and Obama, and I can't see what outcome they expected, unless it's what we have now.

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by: Jacob Freeze @ Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 09:30:24 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Typo (0.00 / 0)

It should be "...he doesn't really need much in the way of secondary influences..."

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by: Jacob Freeze @ Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 09:32:22 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

On Hedges (4.00 / 1)

I've not read as much of him as I ought, but I have heard him speak and he has an impressive mind and heart.  He adds to my file of anecdotal evidence that an education at a really good divinity school makes one intelligently conversant and thoughtful in economics, politics, sociology, philosophy, history, and (of course) religion - and imparts a great, probing curiosity and courage.  Since the good divinity schools don't seem to really care if one is an atheist or agnostic, I may someday try to attend one for a while.

So I'm now reading the article you linked and his one on Nader.  In presidential politics I keep fervently hoping for the Paul Wellstone/Woody Guthrie ticket to appear - but it's looking less and less likely that I'll get that wish.

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by: JBen @ Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 14:27:07 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

When I say I've "heard him speak" (4.00 / 1)

I should(nt) also add that I found myself telling another visiting scholar to "grow up" when he suggested that Hedges didn't know how to read.  Not that Hedges needed me to defend him, that guy is tough.

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by: JBen @ Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 14:29:16 PM UTC

[ Parent ]