File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1998/marxism-international.9801, message 116


Date: Wed, 07 Jan 1998 09:26:05 -0500
From: Louis Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
Subject: Re: M-I: Orthodoxies (note from moderator)


Louis Godena:
>
>I am less happy to see the emergence, on m-i, of what appear to be attempts
>at fashioning some sort of left-wing orthodoxy around this issue.
>Marxism-international exists as a forum where a wide gamut of views gathered
>around Marxism and the left can be exchanged and discussed without resort to
>the kind of catechism-quoting that still persists among the fading
>"vanguard" sects, here and elsewhere.  Those whose interests lay along those
>lines can readily find that sort of thing on the various lists and web-pages
>existing for that purpose.  It is not welcome here.  Part of maintaining
>this list is preventing the creation of a hostile environment toward those
>who share the goals of m-i but whose political appetites differ, in their
>particulars, from the general run. 
>
>I would ask that each of you bear that in mind.

I find this an outright provocation. To start with, it beginning to be
apparent that Dennis Grammenos and Gay Harley have stopped functioning as
moderators. Until I find some evidence that there are other people
fulfilling this role--as was intended--I am likely to regard the warning
above as simply Lou's bluster. I have no intention of changing either what
I am saying or how I am saying it. If Louis wants to throw me off the list,
he should do it right now. I'd simply post to thaxis and others would
follow me there. Soon Marxism-International would be known as Godena's list
in the same way that Marxism-General is Rolf Marten's list.

The mission of Marxism-International is not to prevent a "hostile
environment", it is rather to offer a forum for the exchange of clashing
views. To facilitate this, it has put a ban on flaming and restricts people
to 3 posts a day. Meanwhile, it has been Godena himself who has been more
hostile than anybody. He has used this forum as a whipping post against the
radical movement for over a year now. He is for a radical movement, just
not the one that has existed historically. This is like saying you are for
socialism, except that you hate the existing socialist countries and wish
they would disappear. In either case, what is involved is a failure to view
reality in a dialectical fashion. Since Lou Godena has not read much Marx
by his own confession, I am not surprised he takes this tack.

Louis Proyect





     --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005