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On the conservative nature of Indonesian middle class. If we take this analysis as one of how the strength of ‘bourgeois impulse’ is necessary for the emergence of democracy, Kahin’s analytical discussion is way prefiguring Moore. Sort of.

--George Kahin, Nationalism and Revolution, p.29

I

The chief defect of all hitherto existing post-break up melancholia—that of yours probably included—is that the thing, memory, the romantic past, is conceived only in the form of a single subject, namely the ex-lover, but not as a memory of a couple, not as a ‘two subjects’ memory. Hence, in contradistinction to the actual past, the post-break up melancholia renders an image of a single person only and his/her multifarious modality, which of course is not true. A couple consists of two elements; a logical requirement follows from the semantics of the concept.

A particular mellow tweep wants to conjure sensuous memories about an ex, really distinct from other thought objects in his/her pantheon of memories, but s/he forgot that s/he himself should be a part of the mise-en-scène. Hence, in his/her tweets, s/he fails to provide a full rendering of the past. S/he fails to provide and account of ‘us’, and instead provides a monochromatic, unilateral account of ‘his/her’. S/he her/himself conspicuously is missed. Hence, s/he probably does not grasp the significance of the concept of post-breakup melancholia, the ‘romantic nostalgia’ proper.

-- 1st Theses on Post-Break Up Melancholia.

Some astute observation from Lefebvre that merits attention and perhaps further conceptual elaboration. On statesmen and political thinker and how they see the political [le politique]:

“[...] Ce qui émeut rarement les homes d’Etat, toujours préoccupés de l’actuel er du proche avenir: ce qui les distingue du penseur politique, qui essaie de concevoir le long terme, en tirant de l’analyse d’une conjoncture la prévision de ce qui peut advenir er sortir, stratégiquement, des tactiques.”

translated in Stuart Elden (eds):

“Something that seldom worries statesmen, who are always preoccupied with the present or near future; which distinguishes them with the political thinker, who tries to see in the long term, by drawing from an analyses of particular conjuncture a prefiguration of what may to come, and tries, strategically, to produce tactics.”

--Henri Lefebvre, Le retour de la dialectique

A 19th century scientific discovery in the field of social science, presented by Fredrick Engels:

"It was shown that the appropriation of unpaid labor is the basis of the capitalist mode of production and of the exploitation of the worker that occurs under it; that even if the capitalist buys the labour power of his labourer at its full value as a commodity on the market, he yet extracts more value from it than he paid for; and that in ultimate analysis this is surplus value forms those sums of value from which are heaped up the constantly increasing masses of capital in the hand of possessing classes. The genesis of capitalist production and the production of capital were both explained."

Engels, in Socialism: Utopian and Scientific

"...the obedience which the people owe the government, and the just dealing which government owes the people."

--Muhammad Abduh

"A band needs to practice, in our opinion, at least 5 times a week if the band ever expects to accomplish anything."

--Kurt Cobain, Journals, 5-29-88

#cobain

"Coba Tip, Uni, surat apa itu! Kenes, tidak serius, tidak ernstig. Wong melaporkan percintaan, kehamilan, dan perkawinan kok enteng begitu. Tidak sarinya dia melaporkan begitu ya, Pak? Begitu kok tulisan B.A. summa cum laude, assistant to the Director sebuah penerbitan besar. Apa itu..."

--Sulistianingsih, ibu Eko Harimurti

#umarkayam #parapriyayi

Tentang batas kebebasan individu.

"...the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm from others."

--On Liberty, p.13

#mill

"Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves."

--Aaron Swartz

#aaronswartz #revolutionaries

"I don't want to live in a world where everything that I say, everything I do, everyone I talk to, every expression of creativity or love or friendship is recorded..."

-- Edward Snowden

#snowden #revolutionaries

Perihal tirani kerja, pekerjaan, dan pencarian materi.

"The Puritan wanted to work in a calling: we are forced to do so. For when asceticism was carried out of monastic cells into everyday life, and began to dominate worldly morality, it did its part in building the tremendous cosmos of the modern economic order. This order is now bound to the technical and economic conditions of machines production that to-day determines the lives of all the individual who are born into this mechanism, not only those directly concerned with economic acquisition, with irresistible force. Perhaps it will so determine them until the last ton on fossilized coal is burnt. In Baxter's view, the care for external goods should only lie on the shoulders of the "saint like a light cloak, which can be thrown aside at any moment. But fate decreed that cloak should become an iron cage (italic mine).

--The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, (1904-5), Routledge reprint 1992, p.181

#weber #academia

Madisonian dilemma.

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself."

--The Federalist Paper No. 51, Hamilton/Madison, Friday, February 8, 1788

#statesmen #madison

"What kind of authors do you like?" I asked. Speaking in respectful tones to this man two years my senior.

"Balzac, Dante, Joseph Conrad, Charles Dickens." he answered without hesitation.

"Not exactly fashionable."

"That's why I read them. If you read the books everybody else reading, you can only think what everybody else is thinking.

--Norwegian Wood, 2000 (1987), VIntage Books, p. 30-31

#literary #murakami

Kalimat pembuka buku yang mengejutkan dunia ilmu politik Amerika Utara di akhir dekade 60-an.

"The most important political distinction among countries concerns not their form of government but their degree of government. The differences between democracy and dictatorship are less than the difference between those countries whose politics embodied consensus, community, legitimacy, organization, effectiveness, stability and those countries whose politics is deficient in these qualities."

Buku tersebut, kita tahu, menamatkan riwayat teori modernisasi.

--Political Order in Changing Societies, 1968, p. 1

#academia #huntington

Bruce Chatwin menggambarkan Andre Malraux dalam satu paragrap:

"Malraux is alone. He can have no followers. He never allowed himself the luxury of a final political or religious creed, and is too restless for the discipline of academic life. He is unclassifiable, which in the world of -isms and -ologies is also unforgivable. His knowledges advances on a global front. The technique is that of the intellectual guerilla. When the going is clear, he blinds his opponent with brilliance and detonates charges under his nose. Confronted by superior opinion, he gives ground, but, gliding off at an oblique angle, lures him into the marsh of semi ignorance before the final attack. One threat he holds over his detractors; he may at any minute agree with them."

--What Am I Doing Here, 1989, p.119-120

#literary #chatwin malraux

Kata Mikhail Bakunin, hak pilih dan demokrasi burjuis itu tak ada gunanya pula kalau ekonomi dikuasai oleh segelintir pemilik modal. Malah jadinya kontra-revolusioner. Le suffrage universel est la contre-révolution, begitu ujarnya.

"...savoir que le suffrage universel, tant qu'il sera exercé dans une société où le peuple, la masse des travailleurs, sera économiquement dominée par une minorité détentrice de la propriété du capital, quelque indépendant ou libre d'ailleurs qu'il soit ou plutôt qu'il paraisse sous le rapport politique, ne pourra jamais produire que des élections illusoires, anti-démocratiques et absolument opposées aux besoins, aux instincts et à la volonté réelle des populations.”

--L'empire knoutogermanique et la révolution socialé, in Ouvres, 1871, p.311-12

Terjemahan bebas dari Arghiri Emmanuel:

"the general frachise, as long as it is practised in a society in which the people, the working masses, are economically subdued by a minority holding all property and capital, however independent or free it might be (or rather appear to be) on the political plane, can only produce illusory and anti-democratic elections, absolutely contrary to the needs, wishes and real aspirations of the population...Universal suffrage is the counter-revolution.”

--The State in Transitional Period, NLR, 113-114, 1979, p.118

#revolutionaries #bakunin

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