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This is a blog for a community of students in Sociology 101A: "Sociological Theory," in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, Fall, 2008.
Welcome!
This is the informal blog spot for errant questions, random ramblings, and clever musings. For the rest of the semester, we'll use this blog to clarify the work(s) of Lenin, Gramsci and Fanon. Feel free to endlessly post, and don't forget: Theory Rocks!
Will Obama bring the U.S. closer to socialism?
Obama: A Traditional or Organic Intellectual?
Grappling with Gramsci
"The mode of being of the new intellectual can no longer consist in eloquence, which is an exterior and momentary mover of feelings and passions, but in active participation in practical life, as constructor, organizer, 'permanent persuader' and not just a simple orator (but superior at the same time to the abstract mathematical spirit) ..." (Prison Notebooks, 10).
"The relationship between the intellectuals and the world of production is not as direct as it is with the fundamental social groups but is, in varying degrees, 'mediated' by the whole fabric of society and by the complex of superstructures, of which the intellectual are, precisely, the 'functionaries'" (Prison Notebooks 12).
"The superstructure of civil society are like the trench-systems of modern warfare. In war it would sometimes happen that a fierce artillery attack seemed to have destroyed the outer perimeter; and at the moment of their advance and attack the assailants would find themselves confronted by a line of defense which was still effective" (Prison Notebooks 235).
"The massive structures of modern democracies, both as State organizations, and as complexes of associations in civil society, constitute for the art of politics as it were the 'trenches' and the permanent fortifications of the front in the war of position ..." (Prison Notebooks 243).
"... [I]t is obvious that all the essential questions of sociology are nothing other than the questions of political science" (Prison Notebooks 244).
"As long as the class-State exists the regulated society cannot exist, other than metaphorically---i.e. only in the sense that the class-State too is a regulated society" (Prison Notebooks 257).
What did you think of the Rosa Luxemburg film?
Oh No He Didn't: Endless, Evolving and Perplexing Lenin Quotables
"We are in favour of a democratic republic as the best form of state for the proletariat under capitalism" (The State and Revolution, 323).
"Simultaneously with an immense expansion of democracy, which for the first time become democracy for the poor, democracy for the people, and not democracy for the money-bags, the dictatorship of the proletariat imposes a series of restrictions on the freedom of the oppressors, the exploiters, the capitalists. We must suppress them in order to free humanity from wage slavery, their resistance must be crushed by force; it is clear that there is no freedom and no democracy where there is suppression and where there is violence" (The State and Revolution, 373).
"The expression 'the state withers away' is very well chosen, for it indicates both the gradual and the spontaneous nature of the process. Only habit can, and undoubtedly will, have such an effect ..." (The State and Revolution, 374).
What did you think of Salt of the Earth?
Who got it right?
Blog Archive
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2008
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November
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- A Different Wretched of the Earth!
- Fanon in Context
- Frantz Fanon
- The Thousand Threads and Obama's Economic Advisors
- Theory Barocks Assignment
- Rosa Luxemburg
- The revolutionary visions of Rosa Luxemberg
- Rosa Luxemburg's Fight for Revolution
- Will Obama bring the U.S. closer to socialism?
- Is Obama connected to the state with a thosuand th...
- Lenin on Obama
- Lenin's view of Obama
- Theory BAROCKS!!!
- Lenin and Obama
- Lenin: "Obama and his capitalist tendencies"
- Lenin and Obama,
- Thousand Threads Remain
- Baracks Assignment
- Theory Barocks
- The "Revolutionary" Question
- Lenin says...
- Lenin on Obama
- Lenin on Obama's Victory
- Obama and Lenin
- What would Lenin say about Obama's Victory....
- Lenin vs Obama
- Revolutionary Transitions: Luxemburg and Lenin
- Luxemburg & Lenin
- Lenin believes that Obama’s.....
- what would lenin say
- Obama and Lenin
- Traditional vs. Organic
- Traditional vs. Organic
- Thousand Threads Connected to Congress Too?
- Gramsci on Luxemburg
- Sounds like a Gramsci Studybreak!
- Jeopardy Question: Class in Itself
- Luxemburg meets Burawoy
- Vida de Gramsci
- yay for today's debate!!!
- 1981 PATCO Strike
- Kropotkin's Letter to Lenin
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November
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2 comments:
Lenin would view Obama’s victory as the parliamentary democracy’s success of fooling the working class (p343). Obama’s platform of change is the perfect shell to convince capitalists that they are in control and the common people that their concerns are being addressed, thwarting class struggle (p319). His election would not represent change to Lenin because Obama retains ties to the state (p330). Lenin writes that Americans must destroy the state machinery (p337). A violent revolution by the people is required for this destruction of the state, which did not take place (p315). Instead, the government is still allied with the stock market and banks, as illustrated by our recent financial crisis (p319). Obama’s cooperation with the military and plans to keep troops in Afghanistan illustrates his utilization of the state’s instruments of oppression (p316). In essence, the American people elected Obama to “represent and repress” them (p373).
If Lenin were alive today, he may consider Obama’s role as a fulfillment of the proletarian dictatorship and the first phase of socialism. The “violent revolution” could be represented by the increased political participation this election garnered in response to previous political machines. Capitalism creates certain preconditions for communism including universal literacy and training of workers, which Obama plans to initiate by investing in early childhood education, creating more jobs, and simplifying the process for illegal immigrants to become citizens so they can fill jobs that are in demand (p382). One of Obama’s goals is government transparency which he seeks to implement by creating a database for people to track official activity. This coincides with Lenin’s condition for people to keep accounts of capitalists (p383). As Lenin writes, the proletariat needs the state in order to resist opponents and Obama could be representative of the proletariat dictatorship needed to battle the interests of the elite bourgeois and rid Washington of the “muck of all ages.” Obama’s victory speech addressed that change may not occur in one week or even one term, mirroring Lenin’s own uncertainty about the length of the transitional phase and its successive phase (p375). Like the theory of “the present day state” is fiction, Lenin might find that the idea of a socialist transition may also be fluid, influencing him to recompose his attitude towards the state, our new president, and the term socialism itself (p368).
Although Obama is planning on making concessions that are slightly socialist in nature, our entire system is not a dictatorship of the proletariat or the fist stages of socialism. There was no sudden revolution that occurred for Obama to take power. He won through a democratic election. He played by the rules of the system to win. He did not challenge the system entirely; breaking it down to seize power. His campaign platform was different than all previous presidential candidates; however it was still a legal political campaign, not a violent revolution. The stances Obama assumes on issues are liberal, but he is not a socialist. Our system might transition into organized capitalism, but Obama is not the leader of the dictatorship of the proletariat advocating for a transition to socialism. He does plan to fix some of the problems that the Bush administration created, but that is not necessarily ridding us of the "muck of all ages." The capitalist class will remain strong and influential in the political arena. The thousand threads remain and are active.
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