Marcuse and the CIA

[James Farmelant]

I am afraid Jim's dismissal of the existence of any such contradiction
seems
to be a bit cute since it dismisses that which separated Marx
and Marxism from classical liberalism.  Contemporary 
libertarians like the classical liberals of Marx's day advance
the notion of liberty as freedom from coercion (particularly
by the state) or what Isaiah Berlin used to call "negative liberty"
as their social ideal.  Marx certainly embraced the ideal of
negative liberty (and indeed accepted much of the liberal agenda) 
but his thinking also included a concept of
"positive liberty" - of freedom as the freedom to realize oneself
or to achieve self-mastery as an essential part of his philosophy.
(Remember his and Engels' conception of freedom as something
which begins with the acceptance of necessity).  Marx's embracing of
"positive liberty" was a direct consequence of his Hegelian
heritage, something which Jim Heartfield seems to have some
trouble with as witness his problems with dialectics. Although
perhaps his reading of Hook's  _From Hegel to Marx_  will help
him on that score.

 (BTW a discussion of studies of Marx's Hegelian
heritage including Lukacs'  _History and Class Consciousness_,
Marcuse's  _Reason and Revolution_  and Hook's book may make
a great topic for a cyberseminar on Proyect's list).

I would also like to point that my suggestion that Jim H take
a serious look at Chris Sciabarra's work is seriously meant
since it may offer him a way for resolving what looks to me
like quite a glaring contradiction - namely the contradiction
between Jim's espousal on these lists of classical Marxist
positions and LM's veering towards libertarianism.

		Jim Farmelant
On Mon, 2 Nov 1998 23:34:03 +0000 Jim heartfield
<jim at heartfield.demon.co.uk> writes:
>In message <19981102.113635.6278.2.farmelantj at juno.com>, James 
>Farmelant
><farmelantj at juno.com> writes
>> If Jim H. was say pursuing an attempt
>>to synthesize libertarian and Marxist thought along the lines
>>of what Professor Chris Sciabarra is attempting to do there
>>would be less of a mystery but so far there seems to be
>>little indication that is what Jim H is up to but of course
>>I could be wrong.
>
>It never occurred to me that Marx was anything but a libertarian.
>Freedom is the essence of his critique of capitalism and of the state.
>No synthesis necessary there.
>
>I can't answer for LM, I just write for it, I'm not the editor.
>-- 
>Jim heartfield
>

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