‘To doubt everything’ was the favorite motto of the revolutionary Karl Marx. It is in the spirit of this radical intellectual basis that I have started a new blog. Through revolutionblog I aim to take a sophisticated and critical stance towards prevailing orthodoxies of both those who defend power and those who challenge power. revolutionblog will centre on questions of politics in the widest sense of the term, but will, of course, reflect my own particular interests and research.
Questions revolutionblog will examine
So, what areas will this blog contribute to discussions on, and what can the reader expect to see and read? Since my first involvement in politics in the early 1990s, I have been engaged with questions around identity, including issues around gender, ethnicity, race, sexuality and nationalism. For example, I have questioned the ‘tripod’ theories, which became fashionable in the 1980s and 90s. These theories held that class should no longer be the primary concern of the left – gender, race and class where to be given equal status in terms of analysing society and in terms of engagement in political action. Tripod theories can be seen as a variant of post-modern approaches to politics, with no form of oppression or identity given primacy and a tolerant, non-critical approach given to various avenues of struggle. That most of these struggles, although progressive, do not in themselves challenge the capitalist paradigm, but also have been actually embraced by the establishment (for example, anti-racism, gay rights, anti-sexism) is telling.
I therefore wish to examine questions such as the following:
Dealing with these questions will mean critiquing prevailing orthodoxies around identity, and challenging liberal and cultural relativist notions. Thankfully this stance is more acceptable as we are finally breaking out of the stifling framework that shaped liberal and left discourse in the 1990s and much of this decade. Theories that were so easily dismissed as ‘meta-narratives’ or ‘grand-narratives’ are being critically looked at once more to aid understanding of recent phenomenon including the global economic crisis and the ascendancy, and possible derailing, of American ‘neo-imperialist’ power. It is a sign we are entering new times when the works of Marx are being picked up again and critically engaged with, in the hope that his theories and commentaries can offer some explanation, or at least help us, to make sense of recent global events
There is now a more open environment for the challenging and critical approach that this blog will pursue. A seismic shift in thinking is occurring, indicated by the success of Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A love story, the popularity of the renegade philosopher Slovoj Zizek and the crisis of legitimacy facing Establishment ideology. Undoubtedly, this will lead to a new opening for radical ideas and critiques, and a chance for a reengagement with radical leftist ideas of the past.
Capitalism and liberation
An anti-capitalist and pro-liberation politics will unite and drive the variety of questions that revolutionblog deals with. Thus, I will promote liberating discourses which envisage human freedom and emancipation in a way that, will often, seem utopian and naive in today’s post-political, sterile politically correct world. Partly this will mean drawing on the revolutionary writers and political actors of the past and asking, what would they have to say about the realities of our contemporary world? revolutionblog will grapple with the realities of a new and evolving capitalism, that demands a nuanced, radical analysis. revolutionblog will center on and celebrate emancipatory egalitarian politics.
Promoting this form of radical politics leads to the question, ‘in what ways has capitalism changed and evolved since the days of Marx?’ Understanding contemporary society means new research, debate, and engagement in political struggles. For example, are we entering a new post-democratic capitalism, as Zizek has recently argued?
Theory and revolutionblog
Grappling with the questions mentioned above leads to a need for theory. An emphasis on theory, and at times philosophy, will be at the heart of this blog. The increasingly popular claim that we don’t need theory, but that all we need to do is tell people what is empirically going on, is firmly rejected here. Facts are always filtered through theoretical frameworks or ideological structures.
In engaging with theory, I am interested in critiquing dominant modes of thinking. Questions around ‘ideology and the state’ will also be infused into analysis on this blog. I am interested in Antonio Gramsci’s framework for understanding political hegemony and also Louis Althusser’s structural analysis of ideology. revolutionblog will examine how societal divisions and conflict effects and shapes dominant ideological discourse and orthodoxies.
A focus on Asia
Many of these questions centred around identity, ideology and class are present in the world’s most populous region – Asia. As a priority, revolutionblog will engage with the ideological crisis and tremors throughout the Asian region. Asia, in the wider sense of the term, will undoubtedly be one of the main areas of political conflict and development for decades to come. I will also inevitably comment on New Zealand politics – the country where I have lived most of my life – and for which is increasingly associated with, or as a part of, wider Asia. To understand politics in Asia, I am interested in a reengagement with Leon Trotsky’s theory of combined and uneven development in helping us to ask the right questions about conflict in this continent.
revolutionblog’s mission
This blog is ultimately about thinking, about the rejection of merely following intellectual fashions that often mystify our understandings. revolutionblog aims to play a small role in engaging with exciting and innovating leftwing thought.
Questions revolutionblog will examine
So, what areas will this blog contribute to discussions on, and what can the reader expect to see and read? Since my first involvement in politics in the early 1990s, I have been engaged with questions around identity, including issues around gender, ethnicity, race, sexuality and nationalism. For example, I have questioned the ‘tripod’ theories, which became fashionable in the 1980s and 90s. These theories held that class should no longer be the primary concern of the left – gender, race and class where to be given equal status in terms of analysing society and in terms of engagement in political action. Tripod theories can be seen as a variant of post-modern approaches to politics, with no form of oppression or identity given primacy and a tolerant, non-critical approach given to various avenues of struggle. That most of these struggles, although progressive, do not in themselves challenge the capitalist paradigm, but also have been actually embraced by the establishment (for example, anti-racism, gay rights, anti-sexism) is telling.
I therefore wish to examine questions such as the following:
- Is the nationalism of oppressed groups and nations progressive?
- Is globalization good for people in developing countries like Indonesia?
- Who benefits from liberal politics?
- Is identity politics leftwing, and how has identity politics been incorporated into the system?
- Has the struggle for women’s liberation been stifled by the cooption of feminists into the Establishment?
- Is Green politics unprogressive (anti-working class, anti-progress) or can it be fused with or incorporated into leftwing thinking?
- How do these issues of identity fit within, or alongside, a class-centred analysis?
Dealing with these questions will mean critiquing prevailing orthodoxies around identity, and challenging liberal and cultural relativist notions. Thankfully this stance is more acceptable as we are finally breaking out of the stifling framework that shaped liberal and left discourse in the 1990s and much of this decade. Theories that were so easily dismissed as ‘meta-narratives’ or ‘grand-narratives’ are being critically looked at once more to aid understanding of recent phenomenon including the global economic crisis and the ascendancy, and possible derailing, of American ‘neo-imperialist’ power. It is a sign we are entering new times when the works of Marx are being picked up again and critically engaged with, in the hope that his theories and commentaries can offer some explanation, or at least help us, to make sense of recent global events
There is now a more open environment for the challenging and critical approach that this blog will pursue. A seismic shift in thinking is occurring, indicated by the success of Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A love story, the popularity of the renegade philosopher Slovoj Zizek and the crisis of legitimacy facing Establishment ideology. Undoubtedly, this will lead to a new opening for radical ideas and critiques, and a chance for a reengagement with radical leftist ideas of the past.
Capitalism and liberation
An anti-capitalist and pro-liberation politics will unite and drive the variety of questions that revolutionblog deals with. Thus, I will promote liberating discourses which envisage human freedom and emancipation in a way that, will often, seem utopian and naive in today’s post-political, sterile politically correct world. Partly this will mean drawing on the revolutionary writers and political actors of the past and asking, what would they have to say about the realities of our contemporary world? revolutionblog will grapple with the realities of a new and evolving capitalism, that demands a nuanced, radical analysis. revolutionblog will center on and celebrate emancipatory egalitarian politics.
Promoting this form of radical politics leads to the question, ‘in what ways has capitalism changed and evolved since the days of Marx?’ Understanding contemporary society means new research, debate, and engagement in political struggles. For example, are we entering a new post-democratic capitalism, as Zizek has recently argued?
Theory and revolutionblog
Grappling with the questions mentioned above leads to a need for theory. An emphasis on theory, and at times philosophy, will be at the heart of this blog. The increasingly popular claim that we don’t need theory, but that all we need to do is tell people what is empirically going on, is firmly rejected here. Facts are always filtered through theoretical frameworks or ideological structures.
In engaging with theory, I am interested in critiquing dominant modes of thinking. Questions around ‘ideology and the state’ will also be infused into analysis on this blog. I am interested in Antonio Gramsci’s framework for understanding political hegemony and also Louis Althusser’s structural analysis of ideology. revolutionblog will examine how societal divisions and conflict effects and shapes dominant ideological discourse and orthodoxies.
A focus on Asia
Many of these questions centred around identity, ideology and class are present in the world’s most populous region – Asia. As a priority, revolutionblog will engage with the ideological crisis and tremors throughout the Asian region. Asia, in the wider sense of the term, will undoubtedly be one of the main areas of political conflict and development for decades to come. I will also inevitably comment on New Zealand politics – the country where I have lived most of my life – and for which is increasingly associated with, or as a part of, wider Asia. To understand politics in Asia, I am interested in a reengagement with Leon Trotsky’s theory of combined and uneven development in helping us to ask the right questions about conflict in this continent.
revolutionblog’s mission
This blog is ultimately about thinking, about the rejection of merely following intellectual fashions that often mystify our understandings. revolutionblog aims to play a small role in engaging with exciting and innovating leftwing thought.
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