Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 07:27:43 -0400 (EDT)
From: Andrew Wayne Austin <aaustin-AT-utkux.utcc.utk.edu>
Subject: Re: M-I: Zionism, antisemitism and history


Doug,

You're a riot, Doug. Obviously you care, or I wouldn't have dozens of 2K
missiles from you attacking me over the most petty crap imaginable! Don't
pretend that your amazing number of personal digs and trivial challenges
amount to you not caring. Not caring might be expressed by ignoring (as
you claim you do with Malecki), which would be altogether preferable to
the way you conduct yourself with the regards to me presently.

You've asked me what thought I represent? What burden I carry?

My thought, which is evolving as I learn more, at present represents one
of the closest approximations to Karl Marx's thought on this channel. 
There is no egotism to this statement; it is correct self-assessment and
clearly evident in my arguments. And, further, my position has always
represented this approximation, despite the fact that I have moved even
closer to Marx over the years. This is how un-Marxian most of the bullshit
on this channel is (e.g., we have a "'unreconstructed' Stalinist' who
find Samuel P. Huntington's theory of civilizational clashes compelling
stuff). 

Some probably believe this is bad, my hanging so close to Marx. It is held
by many that Marx's ideas are out-of-date and that Lenin or Trotsky or
Althusser or whoever have reconstructed Marx's ideas in light of changing
historical contexts. These people have adopted these views as their
version of Marxism. Other people here are liberals who don't really
understand Marx's ideas (most people on this channel don't understand
Marx, so I shouldn't be so tough on liberals) and so they advance
something else. They deny historical and material reality, such as
globalization, thereby implicitly rejecting the notion that Marx's
theories have predictive validity.

Not me. I am a historical materialist. I am one of the only persons on
this list who consistently defends Marx's ideas, writes on Marxian
methodology and theory construction, fights to keep reductionism out of
Marxism, and produces Marxian analyses of social formations and historical
matters (although obviously in simplistic fashion since I have little time
to write to this list).  

So, if in the future you actually decide to disagree with me with a real
argument, like you almost did in the globalization flap, then I would be
happy to enage you in debate. But if you wish to continue in your typical
mode of personal snipping, then I am happy to point this out to the list
and respond in kind. But it seems to me that the best outcome--since the
first option seems unlikely, and since the second option is the most
likely outcome, based on past behavior (I think you understand
forecasting, Doug)--would be for you to just hit the delete key when you
see a post from me. That way you can stop wasting bandwidth with your
personal animosity and empty rhetoric.

In other words, really stop caring, Doug. Don't rationalize your behavior.
Give me up as a focal point. I won't mind. I don't like being a fetish
anyway.

Andy






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