I was at the Better Questions seminar in Semora last Wednesday for a discussion of the ideas of two French philosophers Jacques Ranciere and Alain Badiou. The audio recording of the seminar is below, here I wander into a discussion of the fundamental concept underpinning the seminars and an argument that the Better Questions need to be directed as much at the ‘moment of movements’ as at the ‘old left’ which I argue it has now joined. This and the previous BQ session seem to share a similar problem to me, that the presentations are demolishing a left that has not only been simplified for the purpose of the argument but which almost no longer exists. What is more in terms of the audience its almost completely a left that no one in the room has or even had much faith in.
At the start of February I traveled to Paris for the weekend to take part in a conference of the European anarchist groups affiliated to Anarkismo.net, this blog gives some history of the development of Anarkismo.net and the events of this particular conference. Three of us traveled over for the WSM to meet up with a similar number of people from 5 other European organisations for a weekend of debate and discussion that heard reports and debated, amended & agreed six motions. Alongside this was lots of informal discussion over food and drink, often as important a part of any meet up as the formal business.
The Cathars were a Christian sect popular in parts of Europe during the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. The most popular strain of Catharism had a dualist theology, which posited a fundamental incompatibility between love and power. The god of the present world was material, and was named Rex Mundi.
In my opinion one of the greatest ongoing weaknesses of any left discussion in Ireland is the confusing way class is talked about. One cause of this is that the smallness of the country and the huge range of accents that exist within it. This tends to promote a common sense ‘I know it when I see it approach’ at least a magnitude greater than anywhere else I have ever been. And because on the left ‘class’ is a term that is seldom explained this allows a tottering tower of misunderstanding and confusion to be built which results in normally sensible people offering up common sense platitudes as analysis. As with the Better Questions Seomra seminar whose audio I link to here this can happen even when the basis of discussion is intended to be quite theoretical.
