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Jacques Derrida's anticommunist activism. (lemmygrad.ml)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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While reading Gabriel Rockhill's exposé on Slavoj Zizek what stood out to me a lot was the brief mention of postmodern philosopher Jacques Derrida being involved in "anti-communist political activism against the government in Czechoslovakia".

While I've always known that Postmodernism is an enemy of Marxism, this makes it sound like postmodern philosophers are also feds. The source Rockhill cites for Derrida's anti-communist praxis is the 1999 book The Velvet Philosophers by Barbara Day. Has anyone read this book? What specifically is said about the topic in it?

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Postmodernism is not an enemy of Marxism, postmodernism is a really big umbrella term that contains many things, some of which are coherent with Marxism, and some of which not. In Derrida's case and all of the similar thinkers, they are simply Western "leftists" who are functional to the status quo.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 years ago

can you provide an example of postmodernist tendencies that are coherent with marxism? my understanding is that they are diametrically opposed. the claim that not all postmodernists are the same is often used by postmodernists to distance themselves from other postmodernists who are openly unsavory. and, there will always be differences between sects of a branch of philosophy, but this doesn't mean they don't come from the same branch. it's just differentiating what the branch, or underlying similarity, is.

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