Date: Sat, 11 Mar 1995 09:54:54 +0900
From: Guy Yasko <guyy-AT-aqu.bekkoame.or.jp>
Subject: Re: Stalin & Marxism


I think the metaphor of contamination that people have been using in the 
discussion of Marxism and Stalin needs examination.  Like Jon Beasley-Murray
-AT-
and Justin Schwartz, I'm not convinced it's the best way to look at the problem 
of Stalinism. If the problem lies at such a deep level of Marxist thought, then 
how does one account for the differences among Marxists?  One could say that 
most of them didn't  have the chance to develop into Stalinists, but there's no 
way to know for sure.  Some might claim that Trotsky was essentially no 
different from Stalin and that given the chance, he would have become another 
Stalin.  Maybe so, but all we know is that despite his faults, Trotsky did not 
become another Stalin.  This suggests to me that a contamination framework may 
not be the best tool in helping us understand the past, and that there is 
something more at work here.   At the other extreme, one splits hairs over good 
Stalinists and bad Stalinists, much like the Americans did with Nazis and 
fascists after WWII. 
-AT-Here one considers only the individuals, and not 
Stalinism as thought.  


I can identify one more problem with the general framework of contamination: 
even after a rupture with Marxism, the authoritarianism and violence may remain.
I run across many instances of this in research on '68.  This continuity of 
violence and authoritarianism indicates that something beyond Marxist thought is
operating here.  Of course, it's possible to argue that this form of white 
terror results from a move from Marxism to liberalism or a failure to move away 
from Western metaphysical thinking; that is to say, from a failure to develop a 
true alternative.  However, such an answer raises questions of specificity.


When one encounters such an impasse, it usually indicates that there is a 
problem with the general analytic framework. The resemblances to theological 
arguments over the nature of sin should also tip us off.  




     --- from list marxism-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

     ------------------