Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 20:03:55 -0400
Subject: Re: The burden of history


Steve,

All I ever read and heard led me to believe communist regimes
realized marxists dreams, no one I read or heard dis-associated them.

best,
Hugh

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Hugh
>
> I think that your conflating of the communist regimes with Marxists is
curious.
> I would like to know how you can justify this intellectual 'sleight of
hand'
>
> regards
>
> sdv
>
> hugh bone wrote:
>
> > Eric,
> >
> > Haven't we been bludgeoned enough with Hegel and History.
> >
> > IMHO history is not a reality.
> >
> > Other than notoriously unreliable personal memories, history is
narratives
> > we tell each other about books and other artifacts that bring us voices
of
> > the dead, and other tenuous evidence of things past.
> >
> > For Marx, it seems to have been a weapon of choice he used to bring a
sort
> > of religious conviction of inevitability to disciples who could no
longer be
> > assured of God's help.
> >
> > If Marxists had concentrated on returning to the mass of peasants and
other
> > workers the properties that had been taken from them, instead of using
those
> > properties to benefit the Party leaders, there might have been a
different
> > outcome.
> >
> > Otherwise, we are mostly in agreement on what is happening now.
> >
> > Hugh
> >
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >
> > > hugh wrote:
> > >
> > > > Henry George wrote a very interesting book, but what he wrote, or
> > > > Marx wrote, or Lyotard wrote, seems to have little relevance to
> > > > the concentration of wealth and economic power.
> > >
> > > > As I've written before, Marxist state capitalism as a substitute for
> > > > free market capitalism, produced fabulous failures.
> > >
> > >
> > > Yes, I agree completely with your last comment, Marxist state
> > > capitalism, Exxon state capitalism, Microsoft state capitalism, Nike
> > > state captalism .... may not be Tweedledum and Tweedledee, but all
bear
> > > the imprint of family resemblances. In a global market economy, some
> > > firms succeed, others go under.  What does not change is the will to
> > > change.
> > >
> > > I think that we live in unprecedented times, but I don't think history
> > > today begins ex nihilo. To ignore what others have said and done in
the
> > > past seems too much like the American Way for me to buy into it.  We
> > > have more at stake than just our future.
> > >
> > > I am not sure what I advocate today can be construed as Marxism.  What
I
> > > believe is that history is conflict, struggle, the differend and even
> > > class war.  What I believe is that workers have power and autonomy and
> > > to the extent they exercise this, events begin to occur.  Those who
rule
> > > the earth must respond somehow to these actions.  If workers do
nothing,
> > > it remains business as usual.
> > >
> > > Also, in resistance, revolt, reaction, renewal something is realised
> > > that cannot be abolished.  What Hegel talked about in the dialectic of
> > > the Master and the Slave is true.  The slave comes to know a freedom
in
> > > his or her rebellion that the master can never comprehend. The end of
> > > alienation does not lie in a future emancipation but in this very
> > > realization, here and now.
> > >
> > > This is where the sublime enters in - as the negation of the negation,
> > > that which cannot be presented.  In the admixture of pleasure and
pain,
> > > something begins to emerge - something happens. In weakness there is
> > > strength; the supersensible, the Absolute as pure negativity.
> > >
> > > I don't believe in a crisis of capitalism.  I don't believe in the
> > > emergaence of the proletariat.  I don't believe in the triumph of
> > > socialism or the classless society.
> > >
> > > I don't believe anything will change until workers refuse to accept
the
> > > conditions that are given to them.  And the workers are all of us -
> > > students, housewives. street people, janitors, programmers, white
> > > collar, blue collar.
> > >
> > > The earth has become a social factory and the dominant order seeks to
> > > reproduce labor; to reproduce its domination.
> > >
> > > I believe to a certain extent in politics without a program. I'm not
> > > sure that party politics or legislation is as important as resitance,
> > > the exodus from existing institutions and the building of
> > > counter-institutions.
> > >
> > > I do believe in the following:
> > >
> > > 1. the refusal of work
> > > 2. the refusal of commodification
> > > 3. the democratic takeover of the media and information technologies
> > > 4. the building of sustainable ecological & economic structures
> > > 5. the ending of poverty
> > > 6. the realization of a joy without brand names
> > >
> > > Or as Lyotard says (and yes, I am not sure we can simply go beyond him
> > > or the others yet. That move seems too facile to be true):
> > >
> > > "What else remains as 'politics' except resistance to the inhuman?
And
> > > what else is left to resist but the debt which each soul has
contracted
> > > with the miserable and admirable indetermination from which it was
born
> > > and does not cease to be born? - which is to say, with the other
> > > inhuman."
> > >
> > >
>
>
>
>