File spoon-archives/marxism.archive/marxism_1994/marxism_15-28Aug.94, message 28


Date: Tue, 16 Aug 1994 11:19:03 -0400
From: "colin s. cavell" <cscpo-AT-polsci.umass.edu>
Subject: Re: Marxism and academia




On Tue, 16 Aug 1994 at 09:00 -0500 (CDT)
Andy Daitsman <ADAITS-AT-macc.wisc.edu>
wrote:

>>Louis Proyect writes:
 
>My main beef is with what Perry Anderson calls "Western Marxism". This
>trend includes the Frankfurt school, Althusser, Sartre, Lukacs et al.
>This is a sanitized version of Marxism which is apparently quite
>acceptable in the academic world. This form of Marxism has very little to
>do with Marx's original goal: the abolition of capitalism.

>>Louis,
>>
>>I humbly suggest that you are missing the point...   
>> 
>>Misfortune continues in this tale.  The Marxist dialectic predicted certain
>>historical outcomes, such as the ultimate proletarianization of the entire
>>workforce, a final crisis in capitalism, and a world revolution of the
>>proletariat over the bourgeoisie.  Of these three predictions, perhaps the
>>first has been fulfilled, but even that did not happen in anywhere near the
>>way in which Marx predicted it...
>>
>>As far as revolutions, well, real existing socialism has already collapsed,
>>hasn't it?...
>> 
>>In other words, too close a reliance on original or orthodox Marxism
>>means using an outmoded and outdated discourse to try to understand a society
>>that no longer exists.
>>
>>See ya,
>>Andy

Louis,
   I believe Andy has proven your point.

                                                      Regards,

                                                   colin s. cavell

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Colin S. Cavell				"Now and then the workers are
University of Massachusetts		victorious, but only for a time.  The
Department of Political Science		real fruit of their battles lies not
Thompson Tower				in the immediate result but in the
Amherst, MA  01003			ever expanding union of the workers."
Internet:  cscpo-AT-polsci.umass.edu	--Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels,
Voice:  (413) 546-3408			   "The Communist Manifesto"
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