Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 07:47:24 -0500 (EST) From: Philip Goldstein <pgold-AT-strauss.udel.edu> Subject: Re: Marxism, philosophy, and more Justin Schwartz complains, "I am not sure of the point of Goldstein's comment about the awful things which happened with Lenin, Sidney Hook, and what not." Since I was being sarcastic, this is a fair complaint. Still, I did have a point, namely, that conditions have changed a good deal since the 1930's. Let me just list some of them. a) dialectical materialism of the old Hegelian type became an oppressive dogma, and its defenders, reactionaries of various right wing and left wing types. Hence, modern philosophy, including modern Marxism, is critical of them -- e.g., we get Marxist versions of anti-foundationalism to counter the dogmatists belief that they know the general framework of all truth. b) the level of education has gone up. Most people in the US have at least a 12th grade education now, and over 50% of American youth attend some kind of college. This vast growth in education has created a new context for intellectuals, in which they can influence all sorts of people, not just the militant left; however, intellectuals must play the professional game to survive or have any influence. c) the big growth in television, newspapers, and the media has cut out the public space of the old public intellectual, both liberal, leftist, and conservative. Most cities used to have two or three newspapers, for example; now they have one, and that one is part of a huge chain. Try writing a left-wing essay for one of the big newspapers and see if they publish it. These sorts of considerations make evocations of 30's radicalism a form of nostalgia, to my mind. Philip Goldstein ------------------
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