Date: 25 Jan 97 03:00:03 EST From: Chris Burford <100423.2040-AT-CompuServe.COM> Subject: M-TH: Trust In the way Jerry states it, I would have to agree: >> Marxists must, therefore, hold themselves and each other to a higher standard precisely because Marxism is not a theory alone but also requires praxis. When Marxists engage in certain extreme forms of conduct which violate basic socialist principles, it endangers the credibility of those Marxists and makes effective political work difficult or impossible. << This phenomenon would apply to any group of people wishing consciously to preserve a good reputation in a community, and implies codes of honour which might be enforced formally at times, but even if not enforced formally, might work through informally, because each person has to calculate how much their own credibility is affected by association with another individual. The very fact that test cases are fought our and won by one side or the other, is part of the process whereby these influences permeate in their effects. As far as Marxists are concerned, Jerry's formula here suggests that these phenomena might apply not only in a consciously vanguard, democratic-centralist marxist organisation, but could gradually spread within a network of marxists who are in communication with one another even while having some important differences of political principle. --- from list marxism-thaxis-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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