Date: Tue, 11 Mar 1997 00:52:12 +0100
From: m-14970-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se (Hugh Rodwell)
Subject: Re: M-G: Confusionism and the power of Marxist analysis


Shane Mage wrote:

>Hugh Rodwell wrote:
>
>"...no one would raise an eyebrow at the incredible accuracy
>of scientists' forecasts relating to the orbital paths of heavenly bodies
>or satellites, **or scientists' claims that they understand the processes
>involved.**"
>
>I would not raise an eyebrow--I would flat out reject the claim.  These
>"scientists" claim such perfect understanding that they reject as
>"impossible" and "counter to the laws of nature" the overwhelming testimony
>of the ancients that they experienced terrestrial cataclysms (like the
>Biblical Exodus and the "Long Day" of Joshua) caused by the close approach
>of one of those "heavenly  bodies" that today pursue paths of perfect
>harmless regularity in the sky.  Their claims are like those of bourgeois
>social science--perfectly accurate about day-to-day trivia but completely
>impotent before catastrophic or revolutionary phenomena.


Well, you *almost* caught me out.

a) I neglected to mention long-term turbulence as a real possibility, which
was thoughtless.

b) I didn't, as follows from a), specify the kind of time period I had in mind

c) I never claimed that any regularity in these movements was harmless --
there are regularities to turbulence, too, and the harmfulness or otherwise
is a subjective human accident of the motion

d) I wouldn't say bourgeois social scientists *were* accurate, never mind
"perfectly" accurate about day-to-day trivia -- they miss out too much in
their definition of trivia.

e) On the other hand, neither would I say the accuracy of scientists or the
understanding they demonstrate of the processes involved in delivering
space probes to other planets was trivial.


In general, I was abstracting a bit too much from the bourgeois
institutional aspect of science in order to make a polemical point
concerning the unaccepted scientific validity of Marxism in comparison to
the accepted validity of science.

Now, if Shane wants to take me up on that -- let's go!


Cheers,

Hugh





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