Page 118 - Cultural Studies and Political Economy

The Colloquy Revisited 107

porary effect of discourse. But without some notion of grounded truth the ideas
of emancipation, resistance, and progressiveness become meaningless. Resis-
tance to what, emancipation from what and for what, progression toward
what? 30
GROSSBERG: Thus the category of false consciousness returns—actually it has
never left political economy. According to Garnham, without such a notion (and
the related notion of truth), intellectuals have no valid role. And cultural studies
of course rejects such notions. 31
In these declarations, false consciousness is clearly meant to denote devia-
tion of people’s understanding from what is real or objectively true, as op-
posed to the more common meaning, namely acceptance of the dominators’
views by those who are oppressed. Now it is easy to understand why Hall and
McRobbie took such exception to the category, false consciousness, and why
Grossberg refrained from using the term when acknowledging that people can
be “duped,” that they are lied to and manipulated by the suppliers of com-
modified enjoyments, and that they often adopt as their own a worldview
foisted on them by antagonistic interests. For to accept the term, false con-
sciousness (even regarding its more common definition), could perhaps be
construed as giving implicit assent to the term’s semantic opposite, namely
“not false consciousness,” or even “truth”—notions that have no place within
the poststructuralist mindset. According to poststructuralists, “truth” is al-
ways, and is merely, a matter of interpretation, whether on the part of an in-
dividual or as a consensus attained through social interaction; truth is not to
be discovered, but simply invented, constructed, interpreted, or agreed to—
for a while.
The same poststructuralist doubts apply to “authenticity” as apply to
“truth;” in a world overcome by simulations, hyperrealities, copies without
originals, and radical freedom to interpret, the notion of authenticity has no
place, poststructuralists maintain. There are many “truths” on every issue, ac-
cording to poststructuralism, no one more valid than any other. And these
“truths,” moreover, are quite provisional, merely awaiting re-interpretation.
Hence, regarding cultural studies itself, Grossberg declared, “the fact that cul-
tural studies starts with a particular position cannot define its future—that is
indeed one of its peculiarities and strengths.” 32
Critical political economy, we have seen, is by definition an evaluative dis-
cipline; it judges events and conditions by values deemed to have some philo-
sophical, experiential, and moral grounding. It is a scholarly discipline dedi-
cated to the pursuit of social justice. Pursuing social justice in the material
world, however, becomes ludicrous if any of three poststructuralist postulates
are accepted.