File spoon-archives/marxism-general.archive/marxism-general_1997/97-01-19.073, message 22


Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997 19:39:49 +0100 (MET)
Subject: Re: M-I: Re: M-G: Communism & Family 


Leszek writes;

 My point is that
>collective upbringing of children is always and ever the same, be it in
>Canada or New Zealand, or Greenland. If you want to see examples, just
>have a good look into Orwell's "1984" or Huxley's "Brave New World". A
>boring world of identical individuals who have the same set of beliefs,
>ideas, feelings and reactions, because these have been implemented in them
>as a result of "collective upbringing"! I realise that from a strategic
>point of view of Communist (Marxist) revolution this uniform upbringing is
>the most important issue because you can control the minds of individuals
>by blocking unwanted and/or undesired information. E.g. I believe that
>most of this list members would claim that the French or Bolshevik
>Revolutions were greatest events in the history of mankind. I, for one,
>believe them to have been merely cruel & atrocious disasters. We have
>different points of departure, so to speak. Now, if your idea of
>collective upbringing prevails, kids and adults will get to know YOUR side
>of the story, not mine. Now, to be quite frank, I don't opt for MY side of
>the story. I basically opt for THERE BEING THE RIGHT OF CHOICE which you,
>I'm afraid, want to take away from people. And where there is only one
>version, there is virtually "no variety of opinions and ideas", is there?

Leaving aside your obvious hate for the Stalinists which you use to drag 
Lenin, the french revolution, among other things in mud for the moment I 
must naturall pose the obvious question. Do you really think that people in 
the west have a "Right" to choose how to bring up children. In fact the 
history of child uppbring is the history of classes and class struggle. 
Whether under the private or collective models it only reflects society as 
it is both politically and in relationship to the classes living in that 
society.
 
Most of you defense appears to be having the personal right to choose and 
with your own money find a way to success or failure. Sort of like a small 
entrepanad who puts his personal interests before the collective whole under 
some sort of natural law which does not exist. Because in fact the majority 
of people on the planet have hardly the right to choose anything at all but 
are forced by circumstances evolving from a system based on profit to just 
be able to reac the magic age of 30!

The so called right   you are talking about as some natural law in some of 
the western advanced industrial countries is payed for by the third world!

In fact your new found principles are a step backwards. Because I believe 
that Soviet foreign policy (despite the Stalinists) gave more *real* help to 
the third world and in fact Poland after the war then Imperialism ever would 
have. I think what we have to discuss here are two things Leszek. The one is 
your hate of the Stalinist bureaucracy and the other your worshipping 
bougeois democracies and the medival institution of the family as a unit.

The two are naturally linked for you. However you position puts you in the 
position of defending a system which has given people the "right" of child 
raising as long as it does not step outside of the bounds of the political 
forces who control that society. 
I find your position of supporting the right to private connected to your 
trashing the French Revolution and the Bolshevik revolutions as a step 
backward instead of a step forward. 

And you still have not replied to my first letter. I am especially 
interested about the Polish "Meat Ration"...

Bob Malecki





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