rpluto
17th October 2011, 01:18
Hello everyone, my name is Rob and I am a university student in Toronto. Lets see...
My parents are Polish immigrants whose disdain for the Soviet occupation led me to experience a very conservative, Catholic, working class upbringing. Once I entered high school however, I began meditating on theology and philosophy. Eventually, I proclaimed myself atheist and shifted the direction of my reflections away from theology and towards politics and culture. In university, I discovered the theoretical wonders of Marxism, Feminism, psychoanalysis, and deconstruction, which allowed me to experience my disgust of private property in new and more fulfilling ways! I have always been a sort of book worm, very interested in the theoretical side of things. Since everything that has happened in the last few years (the worldwide economic collapse, the G20 riots in Toronto, the revolutions in the Arab world, and so on), I feel that time has come for me to be more physically active with my convictions. I joined revleft with the hopes of figuring out a way to make an impact on the world, beyond just writing essays.
I'd describe myself as a Marxist and a Communist. Some of my interests right now are in intellectual property... I plan on finishing my masters degree next year, and the more I look at the way academic journals are run, the less I want to write my thesis. Academics write essays... the "copyright" (i.e. "ownership" of the essay and ideas in it) goes to a transnational publishing megacorporation... The academic now cannot distribute her/his article directly to her/his own students... Furthermore, tuition/taxes pay the public university to pay the academic, to produce the idea that the publishing company now "owns" (classic bourgeois)... In turn, the publishing company sells that article back to the university library; furthermore that library cannot ever "own" that article, rather the library "rents" access to the article on an annual basis (of course, the library pays for that rental access with tuition costs). The Canadian province of Ontario (where Toronto is located) pays the highest tuition rates in the country, so that publishing corporations can be worth billions. Bullshit much?
Phew! That is my little rant on publishing. I really hope to learn a lot from all of you here.
My parents are Polish immigrants whose disdain for the Soviet occupation led me to experience a very conservative, Catholic, working class upbringing. Once I entered high school however, I began meditating on theology and philosophy. Eventually, I proclaimed myself atheist and shifted the direction of my reflections away from theology and towards politics and culture. In university, I discovered the theoretical wonders of Marxism, Feminism, psychoanalysis, and deconstruction, which allowed me to experience my disgust of private property in new and more fulfilling ways! I have always been a sort of book worm, very interested in the theoretical side of things. Since everything that has happened in the last few years (the worldwide economic collapse, the G20 riots in Toronto, the revolutions in the Arab world, and so on), I feel that time has come for me to be more physically active with my convictions. I joined revleft with the hopes of figuring out a way to make an impact on the world, beyond just writing essays.
I'd describe myself as a Marxist and a Communist. Some of my interests right now are in intellectual property... I plan on finishing my masters degree next year, and the more I look at the way academic journals are run, the less I want to write my thesis. Academics write essays... the "copyright" (i.e. "ownership" of the essay and ideas in it) goes to a transnational publishing megacorporation... The academic now cannot distribute her/his article directly to her/his own students... Furthermore, tuition/taxes pay the public university to pay the academic, to produce the idea that the publishing company now "owns" (classic bourgeois)... In turn, the publishing company sells that article back to the university library; furthermore that library cannot ever "own" that article, rather the library "rents" access to the article on an annual basis (of course, the library pays for that rental access with tuition costs). The Canadian province of Ontario (where Toronto is located) pays the highest tuition rates in the country, so that publishing corporations can be worth billions. Bullshit much?
Phew! That is my little rant on publishing. I really hope to learn a lot from all of you here.