{"id":76,"date":"2024-06-12T11:43:43","date_gmt":"2024-06-12T18:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastjasmine\/?p=76"},"modified":"2024-06-12T11:45:47","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T18:45:47","slug":"76","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastjasmine\/2024\/06\/12\/76\/","title":{"rendered":"week4\u2014against abstraction; a challenge of concrete action and wasted breath\u2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

week4\u2014against abstraction; a challenge of concrete action and wasted breath\u2014<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

reading blog #6 \u2013 on Mariategui\u2019s Seven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality.<\/em><\/p>\n

I think this was one of the most interesting readings we\u2019ve had thus far. Coming from a Canadian and North American context, thinking about Indigeneity and the \u2018Indian Problem\u2019 as an economic one, rather than a moral, social, or pedagogical one was extremely fascinating. I don\u2019t know if I agree with everything that Mariategui describes, but I can certainly sympathize with his points and see where he\u2019s coming from.<\/p>\n

I have always thought that solely politicizing or economizing an event and taking away the moral\/ethical aspect was problematic. I think this text definitely challenged me on that aspect.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as the vindication of the Indian is kept on a philosophical and cultural plane, it lacks a concrete historical base<\/strong>. To acquire such a base\u2014that is, to acquire physical reality\u2014it must be converted into an economic and political<\/strong> vindication. Socialism has taught us how to present the problem of the Indian in new terms. We have ceased to consider it abstractly as an ethnic or moral problem and we now recognize it concretely as a social, economic, and political problem. And, for the first time, we have felt it to be clearly defined.\u201d <\/strong>(29)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This idea of the focus on the abstract reducing the importance of the concrete was challenging for me. At first, I felt a bit of offense, but after I dusted off my ego, I started to understand more. Perhaps, what Mariategui argues for\u2014in his line of questioning against the social abstract and for the economic concrete\u2014is action. Not simply action as well, but revolutionary action as the inevitable route towards change.<\/p>\n

\u201cHumanitarian teachings have not halted or hampered European imperialism, nor have they reformed its methods. The struggle against imperialism now relies only on the solidarity and strength of the liberation movement of the colonial masses.\u201d (26)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was fascinating and perhaps a tad nihilistic to think about how these \u2018humanitarian teachings\u2019 or \u2018social abstractism\u2019 has obstructed the real <\/em>and inevitable change, of which Mariategui argues is fated to coincide with socialism. This mode of thinking seems to me, to have been at the forefront of our education and academia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who have not yet broken free<\/strong> of the limitations of a liberal bourgeois education take an abstractionist and literary position<\/strong>. They idly discuss the racial aspects of the problem<\/strong>, disguising its reality under a pseudo-idealistic language and forgetting that it is essentially dominated by politics and, therefore, by economics<\/strong>. They counter revolutionary dialectics with a confused critical jargon\u2026\u201d (29)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was challenging in other ways as well. I have never been one to look to communism, Leninism, Marxism, or socialism as a solution, (perhaps this is because I am not an expert on it), but I can understand and reflect that this wariness and hesitation may come from biases in my Western education. So, to hear that the Inka\u2019s mode of production can essentially be defined as agrarian communism came as a bit of shock to me.<\/p>\n

It was also interesting to think about the Indigenous collective mode of production, particularly how this kind of economy\u2014of whose is the foundation of Peru\u2014still plays into the way community is lived nowadays. Perhaps, it is seen in the markets, or just the friendly, neighbourly ways that people operate under, but another part of me thinks that the most prominent example we\u2019ve seen it play out is at Kusi Kawsay school. Are these examples a way of enacting concrete and economic change?<\/p>\n

I am curious to know what others think about the social abstractism that may or may not be present in our education\u2014especially regarding this course. To me, I don\u2019t feel my education has been a waste of breath, in fact, I think it\u2019s been very worthwhile to my understanding of Indigeneity. (This perspective of mine, of course, is limited to a Canadian context; but slowly expanding, nonetheless). However, I do recognize and agree that this tension between knowing and doing is palpable, and it seems inescapably unresolvable to me. How are we\u2014as visitors, tourists, settlers\u2014meant to understand and resolve this tension? I myself am leaning towards the answer of solidarity, but perhaps that is a return to social abstraction. Is it our place to (help) enact change or liberation?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

week4\u2014against abstraction; a challenge of concrete action and wasted breath\u2014 reading blog #6 \u2013 on Mariategui\u2019s Seven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality. I think this was one of the most interesting readings we\u2019ve had thus far. Coming from a Canadian and North American context, thinking about Indigeneity and the \u2018Indian Problem\u2019 as an economic one, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,57,56],"tags":[47,58,59],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading-blog","category-seven-interpretive-essays","category-week4","tag-reading-blog","tag-seven-interpretive-essays","tag-week4"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastjasmine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastjasmine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastjasmine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastjasmine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastjasmine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastjasmine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastjasmine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions\/79"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastjasmine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastjasmine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastjasmine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}