Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2000 10:21:28 +0100
From: Mervyn Hartwig <mh-AT-jaspere.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Of Wrong Sorts & a Lost Leader was.Re: BHA: Realism and latent theology


OK, Gary, but for Bhaskar's, Christ's, Buddha's, Krishna's or Lenin's
sake, read the book! (If only to check whether the God has arrived in a
form you could approve of).

You wrote:
>Finally it is impossible to forecast the impact or result of FEW. 
Especially if you haven't read it.

> But I 
>will say that if it leads to the flood of wrong sorts that Erik fears I 
>will be delighted. We need the broadest possible movement, the greatest 
>swamp ever seen, if we are to have the movement and ideas that will save us 
>all. 

Imo, as I have said in other posts, the book is profoundly New Age in
orientation. There is a view of New Age, which has its pedigree in
Adorno, which sees it as politically reactionary (very). Now, as a
Leninist, that is a possibility you should be concerned about.

Mervyn


Mervyn

Gary MacLennan <g.maclennan-AT-qut.edu.au> writes
>Well the list has certainly been interesting re FEW. To be frank, I think, 
>we have been overly spooked by the arrival of the God that previously dare 
>not speak its name.  Though I must say that I feel very smug that I 
>forecast all this in a post entitled, 'Murmurs, Mutters and Matters Mystical'.
>
>I especially enjoyed Erik's response.  It reminds me of the Althusserians 
>in Sydney when news came through that Louis had murdered his wife. 
>Bhaskar's discovery of God seems to be on the same level on the Richter 
>Scale. The response goes to the "disaster" goes something like this -'Just 
>when we had begun to make gains, Louis (Roy) goes off and does this to us. 
>How could he?'.
>
>There is another level of response which tries to go beyond the Lost Leader 
>syndrome and see what can be rescued from the wreck. Nick I think has been 
>brilliant here. Though I do not agree with all he has said, for me it 
>cannot be doubted that DPF is a truly great book. I will try and go through 
>his post carefully and find the time to reply.
>
>My own response to all this will have to await a reading of FEW.  In some 
>ways I admit that that is ducking the issue.  But I am prepared to say that 
>for me the great benefit of DCR was that it modernised and re-vitalised 
>Marxism and gave us the intellectual tools to fight for survival against 
>the neo-Nietzscheans and their dialectical counterparts neo-positivists who 
>were just waiting to make a come back under the banner of TINA (there is no 
>alternative).
>
>It also seems to me that Roy boldly went where Marx refused to go - namely 
>in the areas of ethics and utopian thinking. One could argue possibly that 
>FEW proves that Marx's refusal was correct. But frankly I admire Roy's 
>courage here. He has been true to himself and to his own experience of life.
>
>Finally it is impossible to forecast the impact or result of FEW.  But I 
>will say that if it leads to the flood of wrong sorts that Erik fears I 
>will be delighted. We need the broadest possible movement, the greatest 
>swamp ever seen, if we are to have the movement and ideas that will save us 
>all. If FEW helps create this scenario then it will have done a wonderful 
>thing. We forget it seems to me that Lenin would not have been possible 
>without the great surge of popular and often mystical ideas which arose in 
>the latter part of the 19th century. For instance some of the early leaders 
>of the American Marxist movement doubled as spiritualists and saw no 
>contradiction.
>
>I have been a Leninist long enough to know that what I have said is heresy, 
>but I have been alive long enough to know that it is also true. I have 
>addressed too many small meetings and rallies of those, who like me, were 
>convinced that if everyone would only find out what we knew then all would 
>be well.
>
>
>regards
>
>Gary
>
>
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-- 
Mervyn Hartwig
13 Spenser Road
Herne Hill
London SE24 ONS
United Kingdom
Tel: 020 7 737 2892
Email: mh-AT-jaspere.demon.co.uk


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