CW: I think that a Marxist analysis is indispensable for any understanding, not just in the modern world but for our historical situation. I think in the end it's inadequate but it is indispensable because how do you talk about oligarchy, plutocracy, monopolies, oligopolies, asymmetrical relations of power at the workplace between bosses and workers, the imperial tentacles, profit maximizing and so forth. That's not Adam Smith. That's not John Maynard Keynes. That's Karl Marx.
It's inadequate in the end because of the cultural issues. You have to deal with death, you have to deal with dread, despair, and disappointment. You have to deal with anxiety, insecurity, fears and so forth. And Marx just didn't go in that direction. And people say, "well, you can go with Freud'. Yeah Freud got some interesting things to say, no doubt about that. But it's indispensable and, in the end, inadequate. But it's a beautiful thing to see the revival of a Marxist analysis. I think Marx was the great secular prophet of 19 th century Europe. And that makes a difference.
PG: One predicament a lot of students like us have been having is that we want to get involved in political struggles for emancipation of various kinds. But we find ourselves in the university, and there's this sense that the University is somehow in contradiction with those struggles, that there's a gulf between them. Of course, you have the Marxist notion of the unity of theory and practice, which suggests these things can't actually be separated in a productive way. And then you have the French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser who argues that "philosophy represents class struggle in theory." In his view, academic disciplines within the university are themselves terrains on which struggles for emancipation must be fought. As a student, teacher and writer of philosophy yourself, and as someone who has maintained an active presence outside the university while still teaching within it, would you agree with Althusser? How important do you think it is to theorize our present predicaments and the means of overcoming them in relation to the more immediate struggles for better wages, shelter, food, status etc?
CW: Well, I think firstly you need to have an analysis of your workplace, and the academy is a professional managerial site in capitalist society, with deep ties to the military-industrial complex (in the US at least), with deep ties to a US government with contracts, and more and more of them being bought out by the powers that be.
Now, what happens to the Humanities is that it is more and more marginalized because its more about science, technology, computers, so the Humanities are left very much on the periphery in this regard. But I believe any context is one of struggle. After teaching in prison all these years, if they can struggle in prison, we can struggle at Oxford, or Harvard, Yale or Princeton, or whatever it is, you see what I mean! (laughs). But you just have to be aware of what the structural constraints are.
Now the wonderful thing about universities is that they have a self-understanding (whether it's true or not) of robust, uninhibited critical exchange, just like what we had tonight. That's a beautiful thing. That's 1823 to have that space. And of course it's very fragile: you know it still has its structural constraints, it's not always going to be workable, and they're going to have certain censorship that's still functioning in various ways. But that means then that you're able to think critically . And then you can use whatever results you have as a form of weaponry in the struggles that you choose. So I highly encourage one to be in the academy, if one is so inclined. I've spent a lot of time with hip-hop artists, and they say "we're more free than the academy." Oh really? Radio, video and recording industry all owned by the same oligarchs. Now, how're you going to get a deal? And when you get the deal like Lupe [Fiasco], he gets a deal and then they try to push him out. That's a different kind of context but it's the same struggle because he's trying to be real. They want him to do g-string records and everything else. And he says "Well, I don't want to sell out like that," but he's got to, you know, support his family.
PG: And then they sign Chief Keef.
CW: (laughs) Yeah we've got to pray for that Chicago brother! But he's so young, he's only 16, we gonna' straighten him out!
Shozab Raza and Parmbir Gill are Oxford University graduate students of Anthropology and History, respectively.
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