Re: <nettime> [talk given at tulipomania dotcom]

[Craig Brozefsky <craig@red-bean.com>]

McKenzie Wark <mwark@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au> writes:

> But who really benefitted? Did the class that produces intellectual
> work really benefit? Or did institutions such as the universities,
> and the commercialisers of academic publishing? I think the latter.

It appears that the sophistication and foresight of the academics
which led to their smearing the doorway to the Humanities Office with
lambs blood so that the Law of Profit and the Wage System would pass
them over as the Angel of Death did the Jews in Egypt, was proven
futile sometime in the last couple decades.

But McKenzie, I'm absolutely positive that your solution is the one
that will work.  Asking financially strapped students to fork out for
your writings instead of photocopying them is *definetly* the best way
to stop the bleeding.  After all, the pennies in royalties you and
other writers will regain add up over time.  Perhaps in only a years
time it would be enough to let you invest in one of the most essential
tools of mindbending mental labor, a mechanical pencil with built in
*dustless* eraser!

You truly represent the pinnacle of the Academy's ability to diagnose
it's own situation.

> So its a question of rethinking the relation between the providers
> of intellectual labour and the owners of the infrastructure of its
> distribution. The deal is probably pretty much the same at the end
> of the day for those in the process of acquiring an education.

I bet it's pretty similiar to the situation facing other laborers
doing things like building cars, and snipping the flashings off of the
$5 translucent plastic trashcans that are sold in Target.  There was a
text written on this awhile back which might interest you[1].

> How did we lose out? How did we become trapped in sacrificial
> labour?  It;s worth asking, Ted. Worth asking. But the mould you're
> trying to force it into isn't helping.

No, obviously your plan for reliving the mistakes of the "activists
formerly known as The Left", is the right way to proceed against
Capital.

[1] Wage Labor and Capital
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1840/wage-lab/index.htm

-- 
Craig Brozefsky               <craig@red-bean.com>
Lisp Web Dev List  http://www.red-bean.com/lispweb
---  The only good lisper is a coding lisper.  ---

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