The Return to Socialism?

Chris James.

The events of the 2011 Occupy Movement in the western world and the Arab Spring in the Middle East have ignited a renewed interested in the Marxist Socialist philosophies, but how relative are they for bringing about postmodern social change? The 1960s Revolution. In the 1960s the talk in the west was of a socialist Revolution and the mass protest movements gathered together to bring about this desired political and social change. Today, the Revolution is put down; those movements are gone along with the utopian notions of togetherness, happiness and blissfulness. Today, the factories are bigger; the workers have increased their technological know-how; the products are more sophisticated and the lifestyle more salubrious. Today, we are all encouraged to be physically enterprising while being more politically subdued. However, today, many in the world are no better off than they were a hundred years ago. There are new forms of bondage giving rise to new cries for freedom; yet now, freedom is a complex order of diversity rather than a dialectics. It spans utilitarianism and the natural systems; but natural means something different too. Today, natural is an intricate structure where carbohydrates are replacing hydrocarbons and water is no longer delineated by the cool tranquility of a flowing stream, but an item on a chemical table marked H20. The biodiversity is being replaced by monocultures while manufactured fertilizers are degrading the nutrients in the soil. The Green Revolution is hailed a success, but higher food yields have not alleviated the worlds hunger. Nor has the heavy consumption in the west

made people content. Environmentalists lament the destruction of the worlds natural resources, but seem unable to halt the expansion of minerals extractions, land degradation, water pollution, deforestation or regional wars. The polar ice is melting, the seas are rising and the planet it warming from CO2s. The attacks against biodiversity, habitats, soil, fresh water supplies and the climate are real and it facilitates the production of more weapons, more wars and more unnecessary deaths. The world is said to be reaching a chronic breakdown. As Chris Hedges wrote in Truthdig on the 30th April 2012: When civilizations start to die they go insane. Let the ice sheets in the Arctic melt. Let the temperatures rise. Let the air, soil and water be poisoned. Let the forests die. Let the seas be emptied of life. Let one useless war after another be waged. Let the masses be thrust into extreme poverty and left without jobs while the elites, drunk on hedonism, accumulate vast fortunes through exploitation, speculation, fraud and theft. Reality at the end gets unplugged.1

As economic failure continues to create massive social and economic unrest many members of the Occupy Movement and some political theorists are looking to some form of socialist future. Classical socialism is where the people own the means of production and therefore hold the power; there are many variations, but the overall aim is to put the benefits of production back into communities not the rich corporations. The question is this; would such a system guarantee more social equality and fairness? How much of this system would depend on good will? In other words would the democratic

ownership of the system eliminate incidents of competition, nepotism,

1

Chris Hedges [2012] When civilizations start to die they go insane THE IMPLOSION OF CAPITALISM: WELCOME TO THE ASYLUM. 30th April 2012 on Truthdig; Reproduced on Climate and Capitalism 2nd May 2012. Retrieved 5th May 2012

corruption, exploitation and elitism?

What would prevent such a system

becoming communal autarky or as totalizing a previous state run socialist systems? Without doubt an all encompassing system of capitalism has put the wealth of nations into the hands of the few while the majority of the population must struggle on a daily basis to make ends meet. Further, the combined social programs that were in place to offset human hardships, such as the welfare state, healthcare, assisted housing and affirmative action for women and minority groups have been severely eroded to make up the shortfalls in the ongoing capitalist crises. The loss in reform options has also been accompanied by a decline in labor, a rise in poverty, an aging population, the erosion of human rights and civil liberties as well as damage to the earths ecosystems by over-industrialization and de-regulation. Along with this decay the world is facing catastrophic natural disasters caused by climate change. It is not surprising then that people are looking to drastically change the system for more sustainable outcomes. The Retrospective View. Previous examples of socialism have been based largely on the works of Karl Marx. There have been many other contributors, but one of the many favorable features in the works of Marx has been his descriptions of the social disparities brought about by early industrial capitalism. These descriptions are timeless and very easy for the poorer class people to relate to. The European class struggles resulted in an historical impasse in classical Marxism mainly due to its propensity for rebellion and totalizing socialist interpretations. However, the attack on Marxism after the 1968 Student

Riots in Paris left a huge intellectual and emotional gap in the psyche of social and political activists whereby the theories of emancipation and

fairness went down-hill very rapidly and socialism as a political world system has never recovered its credibility. In the 1970s writings of Georg Lukacs and Antonio Gramsci the difficulties of totalizing governments [Leninism] were more fully explored through a western form of Marxism that combined Marxist ideas with psychoanalysis and Existentialism. Today, the psychoanalytic and

Extensional ideas have extended their ground into the cognitive sciences with a self-help and liberal emphasis that gives a strong focus to managing competition by balancing it with democracy. Indeed, democracy has

become the current catch-cry of the millennium protesters, but it is full of contradictions. Specifically, for Georg Lukacs the problems of Leninism

and/or totalitarianism could not be resolved through social democracy because it favors the bourgeoisie class.2 Similarly, Antonio Gramsci argued that the social arises in the context of the workers production and democr acy must similarly begin from the bottom up.

The socialist state potentially already exists in the institutions of social life characteristic of the exploited working class. Connecting these institutions to each other, co-coordinating them and subordinating them in a hierarchy of competences and powers, strongly focusing them, while respecting the necessary autonomy and flexibility, means creating from now a true and

Georg Lukacs [1971] History and Class Consciousness III The Standpoint of the Proletariat at the Georg Lukacs Internet Archive www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/ www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/ Retrieved 9th November, 2011 and London/N.Y. Verso 2002; London Merlin 1971, p47.

proper workers democracy, in effective and active counterposition to the bourgeois state... 3 As Marx explained democracy is the bourgeoisie state and an integral component in capitalism. Whereas there are many variations in democracy it can just as easily become a dominant and/or totalizing force. Not surprisingly, todays protesters are largely made up of a declining middle class or those who aspire to the middle class status, but is this a proper avenue to a classless society? Or, is this just a replicate of the eighteenth century Enlightenment promise; a middle class revolution and early modern capitalism? Todays struggles are still bound up in the class systems that were described so eloquently by Marx in his response to the Industrial Revolution and modern capitalism. Moreover, the aims to overcome oppression are still caught up in the metaphysics of the emancipatory discourses or what Fredric Jameson called utopianism.

The Structuralist Movement. Following Gramscis ideas for opposing the uneven social forces theorists created a popular structuralist movement for examining the frameworks relating to social relations and how these were implicated in the states overall objectives. By building the appropriate scaffolding over time theorists were able to examine how meaning was constructed more closely, whereby wider debates and new interfaces were created between the disciplines and discourses.4 For example, the German philosopher and social theorist Jurgen Habermas entered into a debate with the philosopher Hans-Georg Gadama on
3

Antonio Gramsci [1919] Workers Democracy Source: L'Ordine Nuovo, 21st June 1919; Translated: by Michael Carley. www.marxists.org/archive/gramsci Retrieved 20th May 2012. Michael Crotty [1998] The Foundations of Social Research, Sydney. Allen and Unwin, p14.

the universality of language. Gadama believed that certain aspects of language had meanings that were universally shared; hence ideology became a shared metaphysical experience. Habermas disagreed; language for him was a matter

of social construction. Habermas documented his views in the book Knowledge and Human Interests.5 As time moved forward Habermas critical theory came to inform Gadamas hermeneutics and this coincided with more knowledge on the human emotions and their power over human reason, but these assemblages of knowledge have not filtered into the mass political arena to create the desired form of emotional intelligence. Rather, a new kind of mind and body separation has occurred based on an old metaphysics.

Social Inquiry and Mass Movements. Traditionally, social inquiry took a direction along what methodology theorist Michael Crotty calls The Great Divide and/or a distinction between the objectivist/positivist research on the one hand and constructionist or subjectivist research on the other.6 Importantly, each of these positions was deemed a science and therefore perceived credible.
7 8 9 10

A deeper examination of

the divide led to the Social Studies of Science [STS] with a myriad of literatures produced on the topic in the mid to late 1990s.
5

One of the key purposes

Jurgen Habermas [1972] Knowledge and Human Interests, Boston Beacon Press and Crotty, p14. Ibid p16. Michael Callon [1995] Four Models for the Dynamics of Science in Handbook of Science and Technology Studies [eds.] Jasanoff S, Markle G. Petersen J.C. Pinch T. Thousand Oaks Sage Publications pp29-63. Sal Resitvo [1995] The Theory Landscape in Science Studies in Handbook of Science and Technology Studies [eds.] Jasanoff S, Markle G. Petersen J.C. Pinch T. Thousand Oaks Sage Publications pp 95-110. Brian Wynne [1995] Public Understanding of Science in Handbook of Science and Technology Studies [eds.] Jasanoff S, Markle G. Petersen J.C. Pinch T. Thousand Oaks Sage Publications pp 361-388.

of STS was to question the boundary problems relating to essentialism and constructivism. Thomas Gieryn describes the differences between the two approaches:

Essentialists argue for the possibility and analytic desirability of identifying unique, necessary and invariant qualities that set science apart from other cultural practices and products, and that explain its singular achievements [valid and reliable claims about the external world]. Constructivists argue that no demarcation principles work universally and that the separation of science from other knowledge-producing activities is instead a contextually, contingent and interest driven pragmatic accomplishment drawing selectively on inconsistent and ambiguous attributes.11 STS raised doubts about any proposed demarcation criteria.12

Demarcation gave science its superiority among other knowledge-based practices. Gieryns examples were given as a commentary offered by Robert Merton who wished to dismiss Nazi science as perverse. Another example was recorded when Karl Popper hoped to dismiss psychoanalysis and Marxism as pseudoscience.13 Both Marxism and psychoanalysis have offered important

frameworks for the analysis of social behavior especially in relation to mass protests. The American scientist Thomas Kuhn addressed the structural formations of science in his seminal work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
10

Kuhn

Gieryn Thomas [1995] Boundaries of Science in Handbook of Science and Technology Studies [eds.] Jasanoff S, Markle G. Petersen J.C. Pinch T. Thousand Oaks Sage Publications pp 393-443. Ibid. p393. Ibid Ibid p395

11 12 13

studied the various coteries of scientists and how they applied only one standard in praxis, viewed as normal science. Kuhn called into the question the use of just one paradigm. He argued that science does not progress via a linear accumulation of new knowledge. 14 Kuhn therefore advocated a paradigm shift for widening the fields of scientific inquiry. This in turn opened the door to the validity of concepts across a number of genres. Today, we can see this at work in multi-disciplinary research and on the Internet. The Internet has changed the landscape in respect of all forms of social protest as it has increased the level of communications. The Internet has democratized communications; which is why governments and corporations are trying to gain back control. Indeed, this shift resonates with the ideals of William James who once commented on the methods of research by writing; the plethora of methods seem like blooming, buzzing confusion, and why dont we just sit down and work out for ourselves how we are to go about it? 15 The Internet invites us do it for ourselves. As it happened James ideas found partial fruition in a trans-disciplinary analysis that allowed for reflexivity and the democratic impulses, this in turn led to deconstruction which embraced the theories of post-structuralism and postmodernism. These theories gave impetus to the semiotic and symbolic orders [the metaphysics] which are always already embedded in late aesthetic capitalism and the religious movements. It was Max Weber [1946] who first compared religion and capitalism. Today, most democratic nations have a separation of powers between the church and the state, but this does not cover the new forms of religious theology
14

T.S. Kuhn [1962] The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p12. Ibid p14

15

that must include capitalism. What constitutes a religion is very precise; faith, belief, creed, conviction, dogma, doctrine; each require an aesthetic [creative/imaginative] form of perception. Aesthetic perception is different to lateral perception where thinking processes appear sequential, straight forward and logically traceable to other thoughts and events. Aesthetics creates a wider conceptual view where

disparate ideas can also run alongside shared experiences that may have no concrete explanation. Aesthetics is often created from hopes and possibilities, not hard facts. With this in mind, deconstruction offered a more gestalt

perspective of the mass social impacts of late aesthetic capitalism and how this constructed the group dynamics. For example, groups are competitive, groups must exists within the capitalist system. Groups involve all the components of a religion, faith, belief, creed, conviction, dogma, and doctrine. Groups have boom and bust periods, they expand and contract. This is the entire system best explicable by systems theory. Quantum physics has also offered much to the explanation of group dynamics in the notion of the expanding universe. For example the Accelerator effect has been applied to economics; the Butterfly effect helped to explain chaos theory and the Ambiguity effect drew parallels with the way the mind holds particular biases. Importantly, this also explained the use of metaphysics in a physical world and it provided new perspectives on consciousness.

Postmodernism. Michael Crotty suggests, postmodernism, like modernism was a response to a qualitatively new society [] a structural transformation of advanced industrial societies.16 For social theorist Megan Morris

16

Michael Crotty [1998] The Foundations of Social Research, Sydney, Allen and Unwin, p190.

postmodernism defines a place for making generalizations about the stakes of otherwise disparate debates.17 French theorists Jacques Lacan and Jacques Derrida added to the postmodern, post-structuralist categories by asserting that human behavior was not automatically rational because it was governed by the hidden unconscious. Importantly, there was another critical thrust towards social constructivism visible in the works of Karl Mannheim and the Sociology of Knowledge [1929/1936].
18

It also appeared in Berger and Luckmanns The Social

Construction of Reality [1967].19 Both these works led to the pathway called pragmatism; which is quintessentially American and comes from philosophy and education. Pragmatism is not a singular theory there are diverse streams and ideas. We encounter pragmatism in green capitalism and various forms of conflict resolution. In the works of Mary Rogers, pragmatism emerged as a pragmatic naturalist philosophy, which concentrates on the nature and genesis of a shared world, inter-subjectivity and communication.20 In theory, by finding a mutual understanding through communicative means, conflicting parties should be able to settle their differences. This does not always pan out as planned. In practice pragmatism usually favors the articulate and those with the best resources. Pragmatisms, like other areas of philosophy are beliefs and constructions; they

17

Megan Morris [1994] Feminism, Reading, Postmodernism. In Postmodernism A Reader., p370. Karl Mannheim, [1993.] On the Interpretation of Weltanschauung, in, From Karl Mannheim, Kurt Wolf [ed.] Florida, Transaction Press. Original 1929, 1936. Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Doubleday, 1966. Mary Rogers [1981] Taken for Grantedness. Current Perspectives in Social Theory Vol. 2 p 40. in Crotty Michael [1998] The Foundations of Social Research, Sydney, Allen and Unwin, pp 40 and190.

18

19

20

do not happen by chance.

Pragmatic individuals can be good mediators, but

they can also be bystanders in a climate of persecution and/or injustice. Pragmatism has had a profound influence across the New Social Movements because many people prefer to seek methods of mediation rather than confrontation. However, we should not forget the pivotal role confrontation has had in bringing about social change. There is something to be said for the power of opposing forces, even in a metaphysical sense. challenge to an authority does not have to be negative or violent. Pragmatism has contributed greatly to undermining the Marxist discourse, which unfortunately has been viewed only in its minimalist form as a means to radical conflict. Many important ideas in the evolution of social and political theory have arisen from Marx and they still hold meaning far beyond the notion of a full blown revolution. Marx was a social commentator and evolutionist. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels set up the first criteria for researching social relations, it was known as historical materialism. Marx had a profound insight into human behavior and believed all activity was socially oriented, even language. This followed the Cartesian notion of thinking ones self [I] as a social being aimed at production. and commercial intercourse.21 For Engels the senses were equally as Moreover, the

important as the instruments of products leading to social development, industry Marx and Engels believed the mind traveled

towards action, which resulted in the view that the middle class had amassed control over minds. In effect, as the post-Enlightenment power of the middle classes grew they were seen by Marx to occupy the middle ground and placate the tensions between the rich and poor classes. Globalization has eroded this key middle class positioning. However, in the context of late capitalism and globalization historical materialism still stands and it is crucial to the

21

Sal Restivo [1994]. The Theory Landscape in Science Studies: Sociological Traditions in the Handbook of Science and Technology Studies.[eds] Jasanoff S, Markle G.E. Petersen J.C. Pinch T. Thousand Oaks Sage Publications p95.

understanding of group dynamics and the desire to return to socialism. However, it is a mistake to view socialism as being opposite to capitalism, both stemmed from the eighteenth century Enlightenment, where history, progress and development were key factors driving colonization and oppression. Marx is still very relevant to social inquiry. Marx should be recognized as one of the principle theorists of modern capitalism as well as the creator of one of the first modern social movements. Marx brought together philosophy, history and economics for an explanation of class relations, but today we can also focus on the cognitive phenomena. That is to say, it is the concepts and ideas, thoughts and feelings, or the spontaneous distortions of human perception [fantasies] that add the luster to our knowledge on human behavior. Many of these responses are taken from the sensory impulses linked to the primal and emotional brain; sometimes called the reptilian brain.22 Cognitive phenomena are tied closely to the basic logic and language functions of the brain and they reveal many of the inklings that drive people to engage in groups and/or to aim for a change in society. The emotions and instincts are the key drivers of everything humans do and we know so very little about them. These cognitive ideas are not without controversy. The English physician and philosopher Raymond Tallis presents a strong critique of neuroscience in his book Aping Mankind: Neuromania, Darwinitis, and the Misrepresentation of Humanity [2011]. The book outlines Tallis concerns with the mapping of brain activity especially in areas such as love and wisdom. Tallis believes there has been an incorrect application of Charles Darwins theory of evolution to aspects of human behavior. Tallis argues with the views of neuroscientist Daniel C. Dennett and others calling the trends an intellectual illnesses metastasizing from academic labs into popular culture. He deplores the neuro economic thinkers who explain our susceptibility to subprime mortgages by
22

Paul D. MacLean [1990] The Triune Brain in Evolution: Role in Paleocerebral Functions. New York, Springer Publishing.

describing how our brains evolved to favour short-term rewards. He also sees the same problems in philosophers who claim that our primate minds admire paintings of landscapes that would have supported hunting and gathering. Tallis sees these trends in neuro-theologians who preach that God is a tingle in the God spot of the brain.23 Tallis responds to the sensationalist extremities of cognitive science, but he does not decry all its uses. Marx based his understanding of the cognitive processes on the natural sciences. This involves humans absorbing categories of knowledge from the

external world, which in turn forms the real person as a product of brain activity who informs the dialectic as a methodological apparatus of scientific knowledge.24 Hence, Marx believed the historical approach to the analysis of knowledge brings an awareness of the subject-object relationship. This changes both the knowledge and its structure. In turn it provides the theorist with a good case for making connections between past and present to reveal just how the historical phenomena shape and inform current ideas.

New Knowledge. The relationship with the object for the formation of knowledge was not fully realized until after the 20th century when a breakdown of the conceptual apparatus and revision of their basic propositions occurred. This has been accompanied by attempts to rethink the basic philosophical and methodological premises of knowledge as a scientific activity.25 It has since been concluded

23

Marc Parry [2011] Raymond Tallis Takes Out the Neurotrash Aping Mankind: Neuromania, Darwinitis & the Misrepresentation of Humanity. [Book Review] Chronicle of Higher Education; 10/14/2011, Vol. 58 Issue 8, pB6-B9. Ibid. V.L.Lektorsky [1980] Subject Object Condition, at The Dialectic of Subject and Object and some Problems of the Methodology of Science. www.marxist.org/subject/psychology/works/lektorsky/essay_77.htm Retrieved 21st October, 2011.

24 25

that the real person is not always a product of materialism that can be precisely and scientifically evaluated, rather the real person is an active reflection of their world - the world they have created - sometimes a fantasy. Subjectivity

therefore exists on multiple levels that call into question any notions of community and homogeneity. The cognitive sciences [otherwise the Cognitive Revolution] enabled the examination of a much wider conceptual field and significantly undermined the meta-narratives. This also translates into a distinct polity for a postmodern age. In 1985 Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe avoided the essentialism of Marxism by developing several postmodern divergences, whereby they investigated the more discursive elements that constitute class relations including political identity and self-awareness. In this way Laclau and Mouffe connected the links to the deeper hegemonic relations that stem from capitalism.26 The Meta-Narratives and the Post-Structural Challenge. Post-structuralism and deconstruction arose from structuralism at a significant time of social unrest, the 1960s and 1970s. Structuralism and semiotics was an attempt to describe the structures and codes responsible for meaning.27 The term structuralism is first attributed to the French anthropologist Claude Levi- Strauss and it comes from his 1949 volume The Elementary Structures of Kinship. The origins of structuralism are later found in the work of Ferdinand de Saussure on linguistics. In the 1940s and 1950s

structuralism functioned as a formidable social movement. It attracted such people as Existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre and western Marxist theorists Louis
26

Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe [1985] Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical and Democratic Politics. London, Verso. Roland Barthes [1966] Criticism and Truth, Editions du Seuil, Paris, p63.

27

Althusser and Jacques Lacan.

Structuralism rejected the concept of human

freedom believing that behavior is determined by various structures. In America structuralism is attributed to the work of Roman Jakobson. He too was

influenced by Ferdinand de Saussure. Jakobson pioneered his own structural analysis of language and was rated amongst the most influential linguists of the century. Roland Barthes was interested in similar concepts and focused on ways structuralism could be applied to Mythologies. In other words how to unpack the meanings beneath the texts and messages. Mythology for Barthes were considered an instrument of ideology and operated as a signifier for meaning and speech. Barthes believed the sciences were moving fast and the collective representations were not keeping pace and this caused major errors in governments, the press and social order. 28 Jacques Derrida took up an interest in social ordering; he used structuralism for the examination of language and grammar. He was also fascinated by the concepts behind the dialogues. Derrida did not view his work as mainstream structuralism and he became known as a post-structuralism. Jacques Lacan had much in common with Derrida and applied structuralism to psychoanalysis for deconstructing identity. Lacan also did not answer to the description of

structuralism although he is commonly known as a [literary] structuralist. In the book The Order of Things Michel Foucault examined the history of science and how the structures of epistemology were shaped into popular belief

28

Barthes Roland [1957] Mythologies France, Editions de Seuil, pp 72-73,216 and in Aylesworth, Gary, Postmodernism, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [Winter 2010 Edition], Edward N. Zalta [ed.] http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2010/entries/postmodernism/ Retrieved 20th October, 2011.

systems, but Foucault also disassociated himself with structuralism and postmodernism. Over time structuralism lost its appeal and this appears to follow the demise of Marxism and all forms of social critique in favor of mediation. As the social theorist Gary Aylesworth has commented, the French student riots of May 1968 was the watershed for modern thoughts, hence the notion of a postmodernism was conceived. After 1968 the Italians, by contrast sidestepped politics and draw upon a tradition of aesthetics and rhetoric including figures such as Giambattista Vico and Benedetto Croce. Italys emphasis was strongly historical, and they exhibit no fascination with a revolutionary moment.29 This might be due to Italys prior engagement with fascism during World War II. Italians had learned the hard lessons of totalitarianism. Italy

leaned towards aesthetic postmodernism. Notwithstanding, aesthetics is deeply and discursively political and postmodernism has attracted political attitudes expressed through the conservative mode, Otherwise called conservative postmodernism. Each of the known post-structuralism/postmodern theorists, Lacan,

Derrida, Foucault and the rest have emerged to challenge the Enlightenment and explore the internal logic of capitalism from a different vantage-point. None

of these writers provide any tangible answers for changing the social system; they can only offer maps for investigating past and future attempts. Poststructuralism and postmodernism allow for numerous readings. They reveal the ontological and epistemological assumptions behind the social movements. Or

29

Aylesworth, Gary, [2010] Postmodernism, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [Winter 2010 Edition], Edward N. Zalta [ed.] http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2010/entries/postmodernism/ . Retrieved 20th October, 2011.

put differently, the conditions that give rise to the assumptions rather than to the problems. There are undoubtedly limits to postmodernism and as American theorist Ben Agger has stated it is not favored by some sociologists. However, it

persists to occupy intellectual thinking and motivate a wide range of theorists. Postmodernism resonates with the broader global perceptions. Challenges to the Foundation Theories. Jacques Lacan was crucial in challenging the emancipatory theories, including Marxism and feminism. In this respect Lacan deconstructs the

Freudian discourse likening the workings of a prescribed unconscious to a covert symbolic order. Lacans sphere of understanding relates much more closely to the transcendent within aesthetic capitalism and the overriding schema of false consciousness. As an example, Lacan dissects the discourse of feminism by giving preference to the signification of the phallus. According to Lacan the phallic signifier is said to leave women forever in the margins of the dominant male culture.30 What we glean from Lacans observations is the imposition of the expressed binary oppositions we inherit. The idea of opposites features prominently in the thoughts of Hippocrates, Parmenides, Empedocles, Heraclitus, and others31 whereby these divisions serve to form the interplay between potentiality and actuality. This situation is described eloquently by

Jean Paul Sartre who points to the encumbrances of class in any real social justice and advocates change by any means necessary, Sartre writes:

30

Michael Crotty [1998] The Foundations of Social Research, Allen and Unwin, Sydney p169. G.E.R. Lloyd [1966] Polarity and Analogy [Ed] Richard K. McKeon Cambridge, Cambridge University Press p15.

31

I was not the one to invent lies, they were created in a society divided by class and each of us inherited lies when we were born. It is not by refusing to lie that we will abolish lies; it is by eradicating class by any means necessary. 32 Questioning the Limits of Methodology. Theodore Adorno always maintained that the proletarian consciousness had lost its revolutionary character. In these difficult times Adornos words are worth remembering.

The only philosophy which can be responsibly practiced in the face of despair is the attempt to contemplate all things as they would present themselves from the standpoint of redemption. Knowledge has no light but that shed on the world by redemption: all else is reconstruction, mere technique.

Perspectives must be fashioned that displace and estrange the world, reveal it to be, with its rifts and crevices, as indignant and distorted as it will appear one day in the messianic light.33 Technique and the messianic light feature prominently in the new groups and protests that hold to the old socialist and emancipatory discourses. The postmodern philosophy moves beyond all the other mainstream philosophies that are characterized by belief systems and claims of truth and reason. With
32

Jean Paul Sartre [2012] Dirty Hands: act 5, scene 3. 1963 NUMBER: 48220". The Columbia World of Quotations. http://www.bartleby.com/66/20/48220.html. Retrieved 2007-01-28 and in http://en.wikipedi.org/By_any_means_necessary Retrieved 9th January 2012. Theodore Adorno [1974] Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life NLB London p247 in Crotty M, Critical Inquiry: The Marxist Heritage in The Foundations of Social Research. Sydney, Allen and Unwin, p137.

33

this in mind, postmodernism does not provide a particular view of the world. Rather, it begins from the point of no fixed meaning. Postmodernism views the world as extremely fragmented where any interpretation is only speculative and subjective. Postmodernism continues on from the linguistic based post-

structural theories to question political, civic, ethical, artistic, ecological and cultural phenomena. Hence, postmodernism has a distinct and interesting

relationship with the avant-garde. In particular postmodernism raises specific questions about the current relevance of modernity. This makes postmodernism very useful in the analysis of current movements as well as the re-invention of socialism. There has been a significant debate in relation to the lines of demarcation between modernism and postmodernism. Thomas Docherty suggests in the

Preface of his anthology on Postmodernism that the trends towards postmodernism may not be the end of modernism, but the thinking of the beginning of modernity under the sign of the postmodern. 34 because the very nature of studying the social is distinctly modern. Postmodernism and Method. Let us think about modern protest as method and consider it next to postmodernism. Sociology critic Ben Agger suggests that discourse-oblivious sociologists do not exhibit much patience for the postmodern turn in social and cultural theory Rather, they maintain that how they write has little bearing on what they write.35 Agger then asks the highly provocative question: Is Method a text? Otherwise, a vehicle for meaning that does not necessarily
34

This raises

questions for the theorist and political activist examining the social movements

Thomas Docherty [1994] Postmodernism, Preface. New York. London. Harvester Wheatsheaf, p xiii. Ben Agger [2007] Method as the Main Text: Public Sociology. Maryland, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, p105.

35

appear on the surface. Agger looks for the discursive practices using critical inquiry. He is interested in the authority of science and what that means for the unscientific commentator or protester [My emphasis]. Drawing on Pierre that Bourdieu Bourdieus Homo Academicus, Agger makes the point

reinforces scientism in order to legitimize his cultural sociology, whereby Agger states: All of these critical traditions focus on academic writing as a continual literary, social and political activity that needs to be examined from outside or above the discipline in question. He wonders can postmodernism overcome the mountains of piecemeal research to fulfill this aim. 36 The postmodern first entered the philosophical lexicon in 1979, with the publication of The Postmodern Condition by Jean-Franois Lyotard.37 The

philosophical precursor begins with Immanuel Kant and his assumption that we cannot know things in and of themselves and that objects of knowledge must conform to our faculties of representation.38 Representation infers some kind of transcendence. Kant gave preference to transcendent ideas such as God, Hegel challenged this view making knowledge

freedom and immortality.

purely experiential. In The Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel states: Because subject and object are both instances of a this and a now, neither of which are immediately sensed. So-called immediate
36

Ibid p104. Gary Aylesworth [2010] Postmodernism, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [Winter 2010 Edition], Edward N. Zalta (ed.), http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2010/entries/postmodernism/ Retrieved 19th October, 2011. Immanuel Kant [1964], Critique of Pure Reason, Norman Kempt Smith [trans.], London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd. and 1987, Critique of Judgment, Werner S. Pluhar [trans.], Indianapolis: Hackett and Aylesworth, Gary, Postmodernism, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [Winter 2010 Edition], Edward N. Zalta [ed.], http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2010/entries/postmodernism/ Retrieved 19th October, 2011.

37

38

perception therefore lacks the certainty of immediacy itself, a system of experience.39 Differentiation is lost in the symbolic order. Here human perceptions and representations are re-shaped through artificial constructions and a process of de-realization. The roots of de-realization can be found in the works of Kierkegaard, Marx and Nietzsche. Kierkegaard describes modern society as a network of relations in which individuals are leveled into an abstract phantom known as the public and created by the press; this according to Kierkegaard is the only thing holding society together.
40

For Marx society is centered on a Marx

fetishism of commodities, which is equally artificial and pervasive.

believed that de-realization becomes embedded into a network of social relations alienating humans from their products. We also find a similar mode of de-realization in Nietzsche, who sees humanity dissolving into a fantasy and an epoch frenzied self-harm. In Twilight of the Idols, Nietzsche traces the history of this annihilation back to Plato. Similarly, in Nietzsches first book The Birth of Tragedy he presents Greek tragedy as a synthesis of life and art played out through the radical mythological god of wine and music, Dionysus. Apollo is the god of beautiful forms and images, Dionysus is the god of intoxicated madness whose profound influence intervenes in the subjects individuated existence and plunges it into a primal world embedded in nature. These opposites resonate with Freuds conscious and dark unconscious. H ence, the
39

G.W. Hegel [1977] Phenomenology of Spirit, [Trans.] A.V. Miller. Oxford: Oxford University Press p 59 and in Aylesworth, Gary, Postmodernism, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [Winter 2010 Edition], Edward N. Zalta [ed.], Retrieved 19th October, 2011. Soren Kierkegaard [1962] The Present Age, [Trans.] Alexander Dru. New York: Harper & Row p59 at http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2010/entries/postmodernism Retrieved 19th October, 2011.

40

postmodern is viewed as a blend of artistic representations and the anarchic sense of community.41 Habermas makes the point that a main feature of Enlightenment is the irreversibility of the learning processes; insights cannot be forgotten at will, they can only be repressed With this in mind, Habermas goes on to explain

how the Hegelians had to conceive of a dialectics of the Enlightenment which gave equal weight to reason as well as produce the equivalent of any other unifying force. In turn the neo-conservatives altered the concept of reason

making it a force for its own functions and rationality. Habermas believed this chain of events was broken by Nietzsche because he acknowledged the power of history and its capacity to impregnate the present as a realpolitik. 42 Current polity might suggest that conservative reason as a self-motivated function was never broken. The world is still ruled by a symbolic order driven by conservative elites. Habermas bases his thesis on the incompletion of modernity and he argues, in the spirit of Kant, for the replacement of instrumental reason with the restoration of an innate a priori reason. Habermas is therefore known for his critique of all things postmodern. The Freudian view asserts there is no innate reason, rather the innate forces are dark, primal and motivated towards self -

41

Gary Aylesworth [2011] Postmodernism, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [Winter 2010 Edition], Edward N. Zalta [ed.] http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2010/entries/postmodernism/ . Retrieved 20th October, 2011. Ibid p51

42

survival.43

The postmodern also gives particular meaning to the lack of

modern reason in its anti-bourgeois orientation. 44 Power relations are multifaceted and stem as much from the differences in personal characteristics as they do from the structures and hierarchies that arise from them. Michel Foucault reminds us: At least since the Enlightenment, western culture has supported the intellectual as the defender of natural rights, the advocate of humanity, the representative of the universal The intellectual was the advanced guard of progress and revolution, the solvent of traditional beliefs and entrenched authority. So excepted was the

view of the intellectual that the ultra-conservative Joseph de Maistre could attribute the fall of the Old Regime to two of them, Voltaire and Rousseau.45 Foucault welcomed the demise of the intellectual and the rise of the new radical protester as the unstoppable guerrilla attack on the system, but sadly the intellectual has been replaced by the authoritarian bureaucrat, will a new socialism change this? The problems are not simply political or physical, but metaphysical.

43

Sigmund Freud [1929] Civilization and its Discontents, Harmmondsworth, Penguin. A. Milner [1991] Contemporary Cultural Theory: An Introduction. Allen and Unwin, Sydney p8. Cited in M Crotty [1998] The Foundations of Social Research, Allen and Unwin, Sydney p184.

44

45

Mark Poster [1984] Foucault, Marxism and History: Cambridge, Polity Press p153.

In the 20th century the role of the intellectual was called into question and Foucault believes: anyone who claims to speak for the universal interests of man appears arrogant or nave, utopian or mad.46 Nonetheless, the universal

discourses still hold appeal. There are strong motivations within humans towards like-mindedness as an affirmation of identity and self-actualization; or what Lacan refers to as the mirror stage in human development; that is a permanent structure of subjectivity giving rise to the paradigm of a symbolic order.47 Power lies within this order as a reversed reflection of ones own powerlessness. Lacan like Foucault constantly reminds the reader that knowledge is connected to power. This reality was eloquently put at the time of the Enlightenment by Erasmus Darwin who exclaimed: Oh save, oh save, in this eventful hour - the tree of from the axe of power. New Models for Change. The classic model of socialism became a totalizing regime because national ownership of the means of production allowed for a concentration of powers. In addition those states that adopted socialism were guilty of
48

knowledge -

enormous land, water and resource degradation. State ownership and private ownership both have problems and theorists are now seeking alternatives in cooperatives, communities and collectives. While there are many options preference is given to small scale operations, but none actually challenge the
46

Ibid p154. Jacques Lacan [2001] Ecrits: A Selection [trans.] Bruce Fink, London, Routledge. p. 95 Lezard, N [2001] Enlightenment Britain and the Creation of the Modern World, Roy Porter [A Review] in the UK Guardian 24th November 2001. www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/nov/24/highereducation.shopping1 Retrieved 18th October, 2011.

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polity at a state or national level, which in effect means that the small is simply the powerless servant of the greater master. The small corporation for example must still obey state laws, which may not bode with the ideals of equality. Humanizing the economy is another option, but this seems a bit like employing doctors to advise authorities on acceptable ways of torture. Historically, the small companies, communities or collectives are generally conservative and they do not support the welfare of the population at large. Similarly, small communities can become isolated and autocratic. There are some examples where workers in the small company do gain from greater efficiency and profits do go back into the community, One example is the community bank. However, markets still dictate expenditures and profits and there is pressure for unbridled growth. Further, who underwrites the investors if the franchise institution goes broke? John

Bellamy Foster argues in The Ecological Revolution, that the problems lie in capitalisms rapacious and irrational expansion across the globe. Foster argues that the only possible answer for humanity is an ecological revolution: which means giving due consideration to the planet on a local and global scale. Foster addresses the central issues of the present crisis: global

warming, peak oil, species extinction, world water shortages, global hunger, alternative energy sources, sustainable development, and environmental justice and suggest designing our life world around justice. In the Ultimate Resource Julian Simon presents his theory that there is no crisis in resource depletion. Simon argues that as a particular resource

becomes scarce its price rises and this creates an incentive for people to either, discover more of the resource, ration and recycle it and/or to develop suitable substitutes. It is a simple fact that the source of improvements in productivity is the human mind, and a human mind is seldom found apart from a

human body. And because improvements their invention and their adoption come from people, it seems reasonable to assume that the amount of improvement depends on the number of people available to use their minds [Julian Simon, The Ultimate Resource].49 Simon refers to material resources and the importance of people [many minds]. This argument stands in contrast to population controls and elitism. It will almost certainly require technology to feed the worlds population and this might mean genetically modified crops and less hysteria. It will almost

certainly mean opening the borders to refugees, sharing space and the means of production. If we are ever to achieve a truly classless society it will mean the end of the middle class and all other class and political distinctions.

49

Julian Simon [1998] The Ultimate Resource 2 http://www.juliansimon.org/writings/Ultimate_Resource Retrieved 17th August, 2012.