Gabriel Rockhill's presentation on "International Critical Theory" at the Critical Theory Workshop's Summer Program at the EHESS in Paris, France, on July 1, 2019. For more information: criticaltheoryworkshop.com
The way he describes these po-mo intellectuals, and the neoliberal bourgeoisie in general reminds me of the Sophists of ancient Greece. An excerpt: The Sophists were orators, public speakers, mouths for hire in an oral culture. They were gifted with speech. They were skilled in what becomes known as Rhetoric. They were respected, feared and hated. They had a gift and used it in a manner that aroused the ire of many. They challenged, questioned and did not care to arrive at the very best answers. They cared about winning public speaking contests, debates, and lawsuits and in charging fees to teach others how to do as they did. To be able to speak well meant a great deal at that time. As there was no real paper available, there were no written contracts or deeds and disputes that would be settled today with a set of documents as evidence back then they would need to be settled through a contest of words: one person's words against another's. Whoever presented the best oral case would often prevail. To speak well was very important. The Sophists were very good speakers. Indeed, they had reputations for being able to convince a crowd that up was down, that day was night, that the wrong answer could be the right answer, that good was bad and bad is good, even that injustice is justice and justice would be made to appear as injustice!
I recently found your channel. Excellent content. Thank you for this work. Being that the streams are long, are there any possible plans to post the audio in podcast form? Again, thanks.
I wonder if anything like this radical thought will continue in the public sphere; I used to hang out in coffee houses near universities where everyone from philosophy professors to bums were avidly discussing this very kind of thing. But when corporate coffee houses took over, less and less of these spaces existed.... It would be ongoing and it was also to be expected!! And having the regulars, yet also the strange visitors in the mix...
Interesting, I’m from a generation in which there’s never been anything but corporate institutions discussing this although they discuss without the radical rhetoric. I wonder if we could attempt to build grassroots working class institutions that allow this kind of thought.
Well what was the original real Left like?? As opposed to the consensual Left. I've never even heard of that before; I bet that a lot of ppl don't know about that. :( Ppl are wondering about the state of the Left or the Post Left ... I wonder if they know about his Ford Foundation nonsense. I'd like to learn more....it's disturbing
