File spoon-archives/marxism-thaxis.archive/marxism-thaxis_1998/marxism-thaxis.9803, message 181


Date: Sat, 7 Mar 1998 14:25:24 +1100
From: Rob Schaap <rws-AT-comserver.canberra.edu.au>
Subject: Re: M-TH: A bird went looking for a cage ... Day after Revolution


G'day Carrol,

I'd written:

'And one other thought - let us imagine the dawn of the revolution -
scientific Marxism is vindicated and the integument is burst asunder.  The
gravediggers are marching down the street, guns brandished and megaphones
exhorting the prols from their bonds.  Do I join 'em or not?  After all,
one man would make little difference to the result.  And if the revolution
is squashed, there'll be hell to pay later (that is, if I'm not killed
during this inevitable violence you all anticipate).  What moves me
manfully to kiss the kiddies goodbye, pick up the Grey Nicholls, and join
my ilk?  Historical materialism?

Bollocks.'

To which you responded:

'Rob, do you really think this image has any remote relationship to any
conceivable working-class revolution? I hope you are merely making a
pointless joke.'

My social milieu is so singularly free of revolutionary sentiment, I
wouldn't have the slightest useful thing to say about how a working-class
revolution might look.  Given that things can change quickly, whatever
happens is likely to take most unpredictable forms.

No, I was trying to show morality and its application in time and space has
a role to play in moments of social crisis - when revolutions either do or
don't happen - and either do or don't succeed - and either do or don't
eventuate in a better world - and either do or don't last.  Pointless to
you, perhaps, but not to me.

I have to admit - I don't really understand what you're getting at here,
Carrol.  Do you mean to say there is a particular way a workers' revolution
must unfold, or that no moral commitment is required on the part of
individuals in the execution of a possibly bloody and risky revolution?

Cheers,
Rob.




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