tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35011209.post4325105022191155748..comments2023-04-23T12:45:31.897+12:00Comments on Chaos Marxism: Barbarians at the gateDoloras LaPichohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15406903235156602127noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35011209.post-49941976850285321412011-08-24T13:46:32.597+12:002011-08-24T13:46:32.597+12:00"...there's an entire conversation to be ..."<i>...there's an entire conversation to be had outside of it.</i>"<br /><br />Well, there is an there isn't. Insofar as you participate in the global capitalist system, it makes little sense to speak of a conversation 'outside'. You can de-emphasis or ignore your embeddedness in socio-economic-political reality, but it is fundamentally impossible to step outside that reality so long as your life remains plugged into it (and just the fact that we are communicating as we are right is proof that we <i>are</i> plugged into this system - where did you get the computer you're writing on? How is it that you have enough free time to talk about Gnosticism on the internet, instead of, say, slaving away for 12+ hours a day at some factory or diamond mine?). Any conversation that truly seeks to address the fundamental nature of reality <i>has</i> to take these issues into account - any conversation that <i>doesn't</i> adequately take them into account is a conversation being held by those priveleged enough to ignore the material base of their culture. <br /><br />Don't get me wrong, I'm all for balance and syncretism - my own spiritual path emphasizes both of these as a virtue. But the global economic and political system we are living under is precisely a system that is fatally, catastrophically <i>out of balance</i> in every sense there is - and any authentic spirituality, in my opinion, has to acknowledge that. I won't speak for Doloras but I imagine that is a large part of her point.shadowplayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17065192889180929700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35011209.post-52224757515797251452011-08-23T12:56:45.293+12:002011-08-23T12:56:45.293+12:00"it makes as much sense as a third way betwee..."it makes as much sense as a third way between cancer and chemotherapy."<br /><br />Well, Gnosticism does not factor into the socialism vs. capitalism debate except to suggest there's an entire conversation to be had outside of it.Jordan Stratford+https://www.blogger.com/profile/06698721932302252589noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35011209.post-59568271042822678532011-08-23T10:59:24.998+12:002011-08-23T10:59:24.998+12:00Thanks for participating. If you know anything abo...Thanks for participating. If you know anything about this blog, then you will know that "torrent of non-sequiturs emerging from a high pressure hose" is a fair description of many of our articles.<br /><br />But I stand by my statement that it is very irresponsible to be using words like "outbred", which is the language of the Enoch Powells and Geert Wilders of this world (I don't know what the Canadian equivalent would be, but they probably live in Alberta) - even if it is supposed to be a caricature of a viewpoint that you're criticising. You don't seem to dispute what I'm saying that when you say "contemporary Western consumer culture", you're talking about the culture of a very privileged layer, not the culture of the broader social system on which it relies, which is anything but feminist, green and egalitarian. And I heartily disagree that the working poor of the large Western cities value ideas over goods at this point in space-time.<br /><br />Talking about a "third way between capitalism and socialism" doesn't make me feel a lot better, because - and you probably don't know this - that in itself is a slogan sometimes used by the far right. And in any case I think that it makes as much sense as a third way between cancer and chemotherapy.Doloras LaPichohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15406903235156602127noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35011209.post-39283300593031907352011-08-23T06:53:11.120+12:002011-08-23T06:53:11.120+12:00This seems like not just a misrepresentation of my...This seems like not just a misrepresentation of my position and a fundamental misunderstanding of my work, but a torrent of non-sequiturs emerging from a high pressure hose.<br /><br />The premise of my concluding piece in the book is this: change is coming, and rather than find solutions in one extreme or the other, that a syncretic and compassionate solution, rooted in history, is available to us.<br /><br />I'm not defending - but merely illustrating - contemporary Western consumer culture. I'm addressing, through caricature, the fears that culture has around those things it most values - not goods, but ideas.<br /><br />I maintain there is a third way, outside of capitalism vs. socialism, outside of Apollo vs. Dionysian, outside of them-us. And that mature, nuanced, blended path is illustrated by Gnostic literature and its syncretic world view. Please feel free to disagree with this premise, but kindly do not misrepresent it.Jordan Stratford+https://www.blogger.com/profile/06698721932302252589noreply@blogger.com