Date: Tue, 05 May 1998 08:49:49 -0500 From: Vladimir Bilenkin <"achekhov-AT-unity.ncsu.edu"-AT-NCSU.EDU> Subject: M-G: Let's have another M1 and slug it out Let's resurrect M1 dialectically, on a higher level and slug it out in the name of the proletariat! This thing about the "silent majority" really bothers me. Today I woke up in the middle of the night (how else you can put it in English?) because of that guy from Fiji. I collected stamps when I was a kid, we all did it in the SU instead of learning how to think dialectically and this is one of the reasons why the SU never proceded to a higher level dialectically and even to the contrary. Anyway, I know that Fiji is something diffrent but I still cannot picture it but as a bunch of coconut trees on the ocean shore, happy aborigens in hammocks, tropical breeze, etc. What is he up to, this subscriber from Fiji? What does his silence mean? What does he think of Malecki or me "fighting it out in the name of the proletariat"? And what does he think about the "proletariat"? I know that people, like Hugh, never doubt the existence of the "proletariat" or the subscriber from Fiji. I imagine they have special notebooks and in the end of the day they enter in them the number of droppings they made and multiply them by the number of lists and their subscribers they have "reached" and then they go to bed feeling good about themselves: the "masses" have not been left untended, the garden has been watered, sooner or later the harvest will come. I doubt the material existence of the Fiji guy and even that of the proletariat. But I am open to all sort of suggestions in this regard. I am more certain about the material existence of those who have been writing for Spoons marxist lists last couple of years. Every given time period they number 30-35 people at the most. That's all. Most of them are menopausal men who know that they will never lead revolutions or even witness them. They were born just too late or too early. So let us have another M1 with virtual revolutions and flame wars. We can have three posts limit and up to 100 during emergency situations when announced by BM and seconded by LP. All the rest is free for all. We can form an editorial committee (revolutionary, of course) and publish the "best of m1." Let's have fun. We don't want a really bad flame war in the very beginning. So, for start I propose to discuss whether we live in the "revolutionary epoch" or not. I will argue that by the end of his life Lenin rejected this idea and no longer believed that in the forseeable future class struggle would be the primary motor of historical change. But please, no mail bombings. There are just not too many of us left to continue a meaningful discussion. Unless the Fiji guy rises from the dead. Vladimir --- from list marxism-general-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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