Both you and heyiya have pointed out the uneasy subject-position, the de-radicalised radicalism, of the critical academic, and for good reason I think: there are many tensions contained within, and ones I would not forgotten, as especially as I begin my path to inhabit that very subject-position.
When I use "radical," I always remember its etymology of "root," so for me a radical is someone who attacks the problem from a deeper, more abstract, more meta- level, while a liberal seeks to effect change on the surface level. I would thus endorse heyiya's definition of a radical as one who doesn't want to work within the system; she wants to throw off the system itself. Thus the Russian Trotskyites were in my book liberals (although a radical sort of liberal); the critical Marxists who are in vogue in contemporary academia are radicals (although it is a comfortable, bourgeoisie sort of radicalism).
Radical, critical theory is very good at identifying problems but absolutely horrible at coming up with solutions (especially when "the system" is supposed to be as deep as cognition itself), so that radicals as I use the term sometimes seem like they have nothing to do but hang onto their tenure until the Revoluton comes. Liberals are excellent at making inroads into solvng the suface problems but often act as if they were completely clueless to the underlying systemic problems.
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Date: 2008-01-13 05:02 pm (UTC)When I use "radical," I always remember its etymology of "root," so for me a radical is someone who attacks the problem from a deeper, more abstract, more meta- level, while a liberal seeks to effect change on the surface level. I would thus endorse
Radical, critical theory is very good at identifying problems but absolutely horrible at coming up with solutions (especially when "the system" is supposed to be as deep as cognition itself), so that radicals as I use the term sometimes seem like they have nothing to do but hang onto their tenure until the Revoluton comes. Liberals are excellent at making inroads into solvng the suface problems but often act as if they were completely clueless to the underlying systemic problems.