Umberto Eco some essays, and a book on the matter of
over-interpretation, that argue, crudely paraphrased, that observers who've
divorced themselves from a need to act upon their judgments on things and
events have no recourse but to keep discoursing, interpreting, giving things
and events even newer, subtler descriptions until the chatter isn't about what
ought to be done in order to effect the way we live but rather about how can we
continue to contrive more speech for its own sake.
There was an idea, formerly, that critical theory would
describe and diagnose a particular set of problems, and then would prescribe a
slate of actions that ought to be done to rid the world of the defined
problems: there was a tacit agreement to stop theorizing and to start
implementing the radical remedies. Revolutions do not happen by those who hover over the water cooler or yell at their unblinking tv sets.
Praxis, theory into practice, from Gramsci. Praxis, though,
is something the left has forgotten about, gun shy perhaps with advancing any
set of ideas that might somehow be construed by the politically sensitive as
racist, ageist, sexist, and so on. The ability to name the world in front of us
contained the possibility to rename it as well, and then change it. Our
theoretical left has taken refuge in poetry and novels and refuses even to
discuss what their objects are talking about in the author's terms, exhibiting
a convenient nihilism.
The right isn't afraid to name, nor to advance their cause.
There is a living embodiment of political will behind their description of the
current situation, and it would be Post Modern Tragedy that we've theorized
ourselves into submission.
