Date: Wed, 4 Sep 1996 07:51:23 +0100
From: hariette-AT-easynet.co.uk (hariette spierings)
Subject: Re: Jesus , Engels and Herr Karl Duhring


>Adolfo, defending dialectical materialism against Karl C's charges of
>idealism and religion with some good quotes, finishes off by dragging Mao
>into the arena:
>
>>And trying to set Marx against Engels, or Lenin, or Mao on this account will
>>not work either:
>>
>>"The material, sensously perceptible world to which we ourselves belong IS
>>THE ONLY REALITY......  Our consciousness and thinking, however
>>supra-sensous they may seem, are the product OF A MATERIAL, bodily organ,
>>the brain.  Matter is not a product of mind, but mind itself is merely the
>>highest product of nature" - Frederic Engels (Karl Marx, Selected Works,
>>Eng. ed., Vol I pp 430-31).
>>
>>And Karl Marx himself:
>>"It is impossible to separate thought from matter that thinks" (Ibid, p. 435).
>>
>>And Lenin:
>>
>>"Materialism in general recognises OBJECTIVELY REAL BEING (MATTER) as
>>independent of consciousness, sensation, experience...... Consciousness is
>>only the reflection of being, at best, an approximately true (adequate,
>>ideally exact) reflection of it".  (Lenin, Selected Works, Eng ed., Vol XI,
>>p. 377).
>
>Why mention Mao when you only quote the other three?
>
>Why leave out Trotsky? His last great battle before Stalinism ice-picked
>him was a no-holds-barred struggle against philosophically unprincipled
>petty-bourgeois sceptics over the two fundamental questions of a) the
>character of the Soviet Union and b) dialectical materialism as the basis
>of revolutionary Marxist thought and action. This struggle is documented in
>In Defence of Marxism, 1940.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Hugh
>
>PS Is your failure to mention Stalin or Guzman significant?
>


NO.  All the Marxist Classics are militant materialists, and Chairman
Gonzalo is for us the greatest Marxist-Leninist-Maoist leader of today, a
true and consistent revolutionary.  

However, not all militant materialists are per force consistent Marxists
though. 
Trotsky - on the question of religion - was a militant materialist too as so
many others can be.  You, Hugh Rodwell, whatever your protestations - and
there is the record of this debate to prove it - have shown a clear
penchant, in practice, to be on the fence on this issue seeking all sorts of
specious arguments to coddle up to religion.  

I think you have made it clear - perhaps involuntarily - that for you,
Trotsky, and the cult you practice of his personality in which you are the
most persistent high priest in this list - having practically nothing else
to say or do -  is a form of religion to be used as opium for your own empty
eunuch's dream of a revolutionary leadership role which never was and will
never be.


Adolfo 



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