Date: Sat, 20 Apr 1996 01:01:48 -0400 (EDT)
From: Justin Schwartz <jschwart-AT-freenet.columbus.oh.us>
Subject: Re: Re[2]: Lenin, Zetkin, Marx on sex?


On Thu, 18 Apr 1996 PBurns-AT-lmumail.lmu.edu wrote:

>   regards sex.  Surely it is possible to have more 
>   sex than is good for one, even just from a 
>   physical health point of view, no?

I think not. Of course, it might take away from other things one ought to
being. Sexualle Horigkeit, as Brecht so memorably put in in the Threepenny.

>   So let me ask another question.  Is there 
>   anything in Marxist/socialist theory which could 
>   be used to develop a distinctive general account 
>   of the role of love (including but not confined 
>   to sexual love) in human life.  For example, 
>   would it be a fair or unfair interpretation of 
>   Marx/marxism(s) to see communism as generating a 
>   greater human capacity for love, or of enabling 
>   existing capacities to be more fully realized?  
>   (Would people be better lovers in communist 
>   society?)  Or would that just be a very 
>   unmarxian way of talking about it?  Or is this 
>   just not an interesting question for marxists?
>   
Che once said something to the effect of "Strange as it may sound, a
revolutionary is motivated by great feelings of love." Of course he has a
Catholic background.

Clearly, the reduction of systematic competition and the opening of free
time in communism of even socialism are valuable pre-conditions for
greater love, both among people in general and among speople in close
relations in particular. There are suggestive hints along these lines in
the Paris Manuscripts. One might work up a theory....


--Justin 




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