University Elitists Force Ideology on Students

[Traitorfish]

Not to completely derail the thread, but what generally is Marxism in an academic context?

Depends on the field. Mostly it's a matter of self-identification.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Depends on the field. Mostly it's a matter of self-identification.

And a set of analytical premises, I'd say: class struggle, base-superstructure, ideology and false consciousness. Often operative in framing up issues, even when not explicitly identified as Marxist.

 

[Traitorfish]

I'd pare it back to class struggle and ideology, to be honest, and I don't think you'd be able to define either in such a way that includes all self-identified "Marxists" without including a lot of non-Marxists.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Oh, that's what I meant. The analytical premises are so universally assumed that no one has to bother identifying himself as a Marxist, because everybody is.

Go tell a literature professor (because of course that's who I'm thinking about) that you find a poem beautiful, and tell me how quickly you get a lecture on how aesthetic standards are historically contingent and produced* to preserve and advance the interests of the dominant class.

Go ahead. I can wait. I've got a minute or two.

*and re-produced, if Bourdieu's in the mix