Date: Fri, 23 Aug 1996 12:40:51 -0600
Subject: "division of marxism"


Somebody [SB] wrote to me and Spoon:

Well, if we end up with a general purpose, moderated M1, amongst
other lists, moderated by someone with at least half a brain,
well and good,
The only problem I have with the whole idea is that marxism doesn't
really lend itself to being chopped up in this manner...

LR:  So, are you thinking about proposing and moderating a list that
you would like to exist?  I hope you will.  
Also, please consider that rather than "chopping up marxism", we are
organizing the discussion thereof.  In fact, what we have in mind is
more of a "division of labor" in the interest of a greater good.  You
know, just because a coat is a whole coat that won't work in pieces,
there is no good reason that the cutting, sewing and pressing all
must be done in the same room.

Of course there will be overlap, and there is no requirement that
boundaries be rigid.  Instead, we can gently work our way into the
unexplored and see what we can make of it.

SB: ... the sort of party I think we need to overthrow class
society.

LR:  When you talk this way, I get nervous.  Spoon does not think of
list-creation in those terms.  It doesn't want to be making decisions
based on members' political lines and such.  But if you'd like to
propose a list that is intended for discussing parties or whatever,
please do.  Spoon creates lists to facilitate discussion, and the
members of a list are the ones to choose what they like to discuss. 
Perhaps this allows a type of "bottom-up" discussion to emerge.  You
all must request the space for the kind of discussion that you want
to create, and then create it.  

SB:  I think because you, and the other Spoons people, are not
Marxists in the same sense I am a Marxist, you have come up with this
chopping up idea.  Precisely because you see marxism as one amongst
many world views, you do not see Marxism itself as an organic whole.

LR:  I disagree.  I think that some "Marxists in the same sense" also
disagree with your opinion that one big moderated marxism-general
list is the best or most marxistly correct way to discuss the whole
world and everything.  Spoon discussed this exact point in coming to
a decision.  To see marxism as an "organic whole" simply does not
require that there be only one marxian list, in Spoon opinion.  

Also, consider a flesh-conference - you wouldn't just send everyone
at a marxism conference into one big room for the whole time, it's
usually organized by some topics, with chairs or moderators, etc,
altho everyone knows that all the topics are really part of one
whole.

SB: PS Please accept this criticism as basically constructive ...

I do, and I thank you.  
Lisa

p.s. I proposed to SB that we put this on lists, but have received no
answer yet, so I removed hir name in the interests of being polite /
comradely with hir privacy.


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