File spoon-archives/marxism-thaxis.archive/marxism-thaxis_1998/marxism-thaxis.9802, message 254


Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 15:52:32 +0100
From: Hugh Rodwell <m-14970-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se>
Subject: M-TH: Intersubjectivity


Rob writes:

>For better or worse, today is the seed of tomorrow.  And anyway, collective
>action based on any premise other than intersubjectivity is not socialist
>by my lights (hence, for example, my problem with Leninist vanguardism).

This is crazy. It should read "sectarian and Stalinist caricatures of
'Leninist' vanguardism" for starters.

And *all* human action is based on intersubjectivity, willy-nilly. It's
just that some kinds of action are oppressive in various ways and others
are qualitatively less so.

The crunch is you've got to act in collectively powerful ways if you want
to get rid of the capitalist oppressive version of skewered
intersubjectivity. As I've been repeating here till I'm blue in the face,
only a thorough knowledge of the necessities of modern society can pinpoint
the areas where it's possible for human action to change this society from
capitalism towards socialism. No Stalinist or sectarian brainwashing
operation will ever manage this -- as for instance is shown by Mark Jones's
incredible posts on M-I illustrating (against his will) the run of
Stalinist fiascos regarding knowledge and preparation for action in the
second world war. The Bolshevik party that led and consummated the October
revolution was not the same party that the Stalinist bureaucracy gutted and
twisted out of all recognition after the attrition of the civil wars
(successfully) fought to defend the revolution.

You need the correct balance between thorough discussion of conditions and
options before a decision (intersubjectivity if you like), and discipline
in carrying out the decisions once taken, followed by a more
intersubjectivity in discussing the results of the decisions/actions in a
balance-sheet. There's nothing specifically revolutionary or Marxist or
socialist or Bolshevik about any of this -- the same goes for any sensible
action by any collective at all. It's just that bourgeois ideology pretends
that democratic centralism is an alien bogey that's going to rape your
wives and daughters, steal your house and car and force you to do
unspeakable things.

Now the reason all this ideology hits home is that the everyday experience
of living under capitalism at work and at play reinforces oppressive
patterns of human interaction. We recognize the charges being made and
believe they are real because we know how real blackmail, violence,
violation of integrity, foreclosures, lies, stunting and terror are all
around us. The imperialist imagination is overflowing with repressive
brutality and exploitation, just like its reality. Every time Rob slouches
in front of the telly he'll get sprayed with the shit, just like the rest
of us. And the orders coming from above are always inhuman and repressive
and given tyrannically -- what Rob and all the other gut-reaction
anti-vanguardists are reacting against are these American-as-apple-pie
insanities, only the ideology says one brave maverick can always change
things and win through and make America a better place again without the
bullies and boneheads who are abusing their power right now. The hero
always defies orders, but instead of losing his job and friends and maybe
getting killed or exiled for his pains the rules of the happy end kick in,
and we can forget about our anxiety till the next programme in five minutes
after the equally oppressive commercials.

All this home-bred fear and loathing is too much to take for most people
when it comes to seeing where it comes from, so all the inhumanity and
viciousness of their own oppressed experience is projected on to alien
enemies, who may be treated with any degree of brutality because they are
projected as being so incredibly vicious. And the scapegoats are many --
any victims  of oppression will do, and the worse the oppression they
suffer, the worse the atrocities attributed to them (Native Americans,
women, blacks, Japanese, Germans, Communists, immigrants, workers...).

It's time for Rob to get real and think about the extent of the oppression
he's suffering in his own real life that make him invent this kind of empty
projection to ward off Leninism and democratic centralism. Because the
difference between Bolshevik-Leninist democratic centralism and the rest of
the political spectrum is that it isn't trying to hide anything, and that
it shies from neither the need for open discussion when making policy nor
for strict discipline when putting policy into action.

Cheers,

Hugh







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