Dr. Craig Can Be My New Peter Barry

I just finished reading Dr. Craig's post (it's on Critical Theory and the Academy, go read it if you have not already) on Marxism. It made me feel a lot better about myself. I feel as though I really am starting to understand the Marxist theory, whether or not I can communicate that very well on my blog. Instead of reading his guest lecture and constantly thinking to myself, "What is God's name is he talking about?" I was thinking, "Wow, that seems really familiar, oh wait, that's what Dr. M has been trying to explain for the past 3 days. And I am just really slow."

I would like to take a quote for Dr. Craig's lecture, that made my confused thoughts slyly slip into place, which is, "One might say that from a Marxist viewpoint this is the quintessence of ideology, the representation of one particular group’s, or more specifically, one class’s outlook, values, and interests, as if they are “universal” to all, what Antonio Gramsci calls society’s “common sense” view of the world." That makes sense. Don't we all live by the standards of middle class, or at least don't we believe we all do? Our beliefs are universal. I may be wrong in saying this, because I mean lets face it, I feel like I have a good grasp on Marxism but I probably don't, but isn't that why we (meaning America) don't trust any other cultures? Because we believe we are right, so they must be wrong? That is kind of a tangent, so I will go back to Dr. Craig's post.

I'm glad both Dr. M and Dr. Craig are using Shakespeare as an example, it helps to keep my thoughts organized, and it explains the importance of the author. As I have been saying in the past, which I am now quite sure of, the author's intent really does not matter. It is instead the fact that the text itself "advances some of the priorities of the ruling class." This is not the same as liberal-humanism, where the actual text (meaning the words) holds the power and dictates meaning, but rather the text-in-the-big-picture that matters and tells us of the class inequalities that exist.

Thank you Dr. Craig for your interest in helping us to understand Marxism, and for your articulate writing skills (maybe I should be thanking your Alma Mater for that.)