A Thank You of Sorts... To Jon Stewart?

This link is time sensitive, sorry for that, but it essentially links to Jon Stewart saying he will be stepping down from the anchor desk of The Daily Show, in a few months.
http://thedailyshow.cc.com/

Generally speaking I am very Luxembourgian in my reform vs revolution thinking, and capitalist apologizing liberals are not people I admire.  Stewart to my knowledge has never apologized for capitalism, and I honestly believe that leftist educators owe him a debt of gratitude. 

Many of my students over the years have got most, if not all of their national news from The Daily Show, and Jon Stewart (with his writing staff ) has never been kind to the absurdities (class based and otherwise) present in the American experience.  I honestly believe that many manifestations on the left, by academics or otherwise have been given more room to blossom by The Daily Show. 

For the cultural space fought for and often provided, in the minds of students, and in our society in general, a sincere thank you to Jon Stewart.  I prefer the world that you were a part of to one without you.  Best of Luck.

Did I Read This Right?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/26/opinion/paul-krugman-ending-greeces-nightmare.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region&region=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&_r=0

Long term readers readers will know that I usually don't support mainstream economics by mentioning it in a non-critical light, and certainly not by linking to it.  This case is a little different.  A squinty eyed reading of the last four chapters of Krugman's Times piece this morning might actually be construed as calling for economic revolution in Greece.  A stretch maybe? 

The election of Alexis Tsipras of Syriza as Greek Prime Minister is a joyous sign, the winds are blowing back in our direction dear leftists.  Can we put aside our petty differences and focus on what makes us the same? In the United States the shattered left has a long way to go.  Can Greece lead the way?  Honestly I doubt it, a movement back to social democracy does not address underlying economic and class issues, and is certainly not a revolutionary economic shift, but it is certainly preferable in my mind to an austerity program.

Solidarity and Hope on a soon to be snow filled morning.

Moving Beyond Class

I am really fond of the argument (I know found in the Althusser chapter of New Departures, I am sure it is elsewhere) that overdetermination will become the epistemology of a communist society. That is empiricism (and to a lesser extent rationalism), but determinist epistemologies nonetheless, have been the epistemologies of capitalism and as we move beyond this phase of humanity a new epistemology, overdetermination, will become predominate in society.

Much of the economic analysis (in fact all of it?) that has been undertaken within the framework of overdetermination has been done using the entry point of class (ie the work of Resnick and Wolff and many of their students including myself). The argument "why class" has been made many times and I will not repeat it here except to say that the choice of class as an entry point makes good sense within the Marxian tradition given the goals of our theories.

As we move beyond capitalism class will no longer be a useful entry point in the study of economic processes. Moving to a classless society will in fact render class fairly useless as an entry point for economic analysis.
The golden age of overdetermination in a classless society will have to find new entry points to study the economy, as an entry point of something that no longer exists will be both backwards and obsolete. The search for new entry points that logically make sense for economic analysis will be an important step moving forward.

Class will be regulated to the entry point that made sense under the system where the entire epistemology did not. It is only in moving beyond capitalism, and moving beyond modernism and humanism that overdetermination will have a chance to be fully utilized in society. Class as an entry point will have to die.