Jacques Rancière: Self
Quotes
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Jacques Rancière : Althusser adopted this clear position that a revolt like the one in '68 was something that fitted perfectly with ideology. But it wasn't by chance that the Maoist students were against the movement in early May '68. The logic behind this was that the true revolution was a scientific one, based on science, with a proletarian avant-garde, while on the other hand you had more spontaneous movements of rebellious students, which was all very nice, but rebellious students should first learn the science, then they can put themselves at the service of the proletarian avant-garde. I don't think there was any contradiction with Althusser's project. It was logical that Althusser and Althusserianism, directly based on Althusser's theses on science and ideology, on his writings about students... It made perfect sense that Althusserians would be against '68. But it all turned out a bit different, because, well, when it's something that's forced on you, a spontaneous movement by students who don't know the science very well, but which permeates all society and causes a general strike and a shake up of the hierarchy... Well, you may be an Althusserian and care about science, but you can see something's going on. So most Althusserians felt stirred up by these events.
