Re: [xmca] Criticism from inside to ground cultural critique in comparative context

[mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>]

That is correct, Leif. It is quite difficult. Often insiders take govt
propaganda as opposite of reality and valorize "outside" cultural
values.practices.norms that those who are "insiders" from the "outside"
themselves do not value.

We saw this happen in the USSR and some of its consequences in the immediate
aftermath of its fall.

At the same time, systems leak. That is the good news, even if one has to
whisper or hide behind aesopian language, or resist in all the ways that
people like Bakhtin and others have written about.

The enemy of our enemy may not be that friendly.

mike

On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 4:56 AM, Leif Strandberg <
leifstrandberg.ab@telia.com> wrote:

> I am reading Orlanda Fige's latest book "De som viskade" (They who
> whispered). And it was not easy to "see what things are like in the outside
> world".
>
> Leif
> Sweden
> 17 jan 2010 kl. 10.46 skrev mike cole:
>
>  Andy writes and Achilles responds in later note:
>>
>> there is always some possibility for people within a culture to see what
>> things are like in the outside world, no matter how much a government
>> tries
>> to isolate people, and that there will always be some people in a culture
>> who can base themselves on what they see outside to criticize their "own"
>> culture. This possibility creates a valid ground for social criticism.
>>
>>
>> This explicit grounding, while vulnerable to accusations of treason
>> strikes
>> me as one way to ground critique. It is part of wider
>> dialogue/collusion/collaboration to identify at least cultural
>> contingent critiques.
>>
>> mike
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>
>
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