Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... The Communist Postscript (edition 2010)by Boris Groys (Author), Thomas Ford (Translator)
Work InformationThe Communist Postscript by Boris Groys
None Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. no reviews | add a review
Belongs to Publisher Series
Since Plato, philosophers have dreamed of establishing a rational state ruled through the power of language. In this radical and disturbing account of Soviet philosophy, Boris Groys argues that communism shares that dream and is best understood as an attempt to replace financial with linguistic bonds as the cement uniting society. The transformative power of language, the medium of equality, is the key to any new communist revolution. No library descriptions found.
|
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)306.44947Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Culture and Institutions Specific aspects of culture Language Language planning and policyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |
'The struggle between these positions [marking left and right of party] determined the life of the country for a considerable period until the general line, represented by Stalin, won out at the beginning of the 1930s, whereupon left and right deviationists were liquidated over the course of the decade. '
'were liquidated', like a mattress you don't want.
'Thus Stalinist communism proves finally to be a revival of the Platonic dream of the kingdom of the philosphers, those who operate by means of language alone. In the Platonic state, the language of the philosophers is converted into direct violence by the class of guardians. This violence holds the state together. The Stalinist state was no different. It was the state apparatuses that translated the language of the philosopher into action - and, as is common knowledge, this translation was exceedingly brutal, incessantly brutal. Nevertheless, this remains a case of rule by language, for the sole means by which the philosopher could compel these apparatuses to listen to him and act in the name of the whole were those of language.'
I'm not sure who that passage shortchanges more, the Greeks, Chekists, or Gulag guards. We all cower to the middle of the night knock of a philosopher's language. Guffaw.
'On the one hand, sub-atomic particles are primary because all matter is made up of them. But in relation to finance they are secondary, because the greater the acceleration that releases the sub-atomic particles are discovered - and the size of the particle accelerator depends entirely upon its finance.'
Yes, the existence of quarks and muons in stars billions of miles away billions of years ago are completely dependent upon human government finance. Idiot. ( )