Re: [-empyre-] Matrixial Encounters

[Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>]

Hi Ken - not trying to be difficult, but to understand. You say 'farmers 
and workers as a class alliance' for example. At this point, I'm not sure 
I understand what 'farmer' references - at least in the U.S. Does this 
include agribusiness? defranchised small-farmholdings? migrant labor? I'm 
also confused about 'workers' in the same light. Within or beyond late 
capitalism (I'm thinking of what I remember from for example David Harvey) 
these terms become increasingly problematized. I think the situation under 
fast-forward post-fordism problematizes these categories - that of 'class' 
as well. Bourdieu points out the various forms of capital that exist - 
economic, social, cultural, etc. - and at least in this country, they seem 
to refuse any sort of defining totality such as 'farmer' etc. And 'class' 
seems to demand totality - which books like 'What's the Matter with 
Kansas' would I think dispute. When one speaks about hacking or through 
hacking - class itself is hacked, farming is hacked, workers are hacked 
and hackers are hacked. I can move beyond this complexity, but more 
towards striations than circumscriptions. And yes, the commodity structure 
has changed - even on cable, one sees the continuous increase for example 
of bottom-fourth banner advertising during shows; capital builds and 
corrupts itself in the process. How can one work through this to defining 
farmer/class/worker etc. Even 'hacker' is problematic for me; it seems 
more a field of usages, sometimes a ludic strategy, etc.

I realize I'm most likely missing the point, and am writing from a post- 
modernist perspective here, but there's another politics involved for me, 
that of anti-class, anti-totality, proceeding without these definitions. I 
admit that may be catastrophic.

- Alan


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