Margaret wrote:
>I'll maintain to my last breath that it's mindless of
>the left 'intelligentsiya' to take the position that
>anything less than socialist perfection is worth
>nothing. It's self-destructive. Suspicious besom
>that I am, I have to wonder if it isn't a way to avoid
>doing the hard work of actually *building* socialism.
>A political 'Wooden Leg', as it were.
so margaret, lovely, this is 'zactly what marx thought:
Marx to Arnold Ruge Kreuznach, Sept 1843
...for even though the question 'where from?' presents no problems, the question 'where to?' is a rich source of confusion. [...] it is therefore anything but beneath [our] dignity to make even the most specialized political problem--such as the distinction between the representative system and the Estates system--into an object of its criticism. for this problem only expresses at the political level the distinction between the rule of man and the rule of private property. hence the critic...must concern himself with these political questions (which the crude socialists find beneath their dignity). by demonstrating the superiority of the representative system over the Estates system he will *interest* a great party in practice. by raising the representative system from its political form to a general one and by demonstrating the true significance underlying it he will force this party to transcend itself--for its victory is also its defeat.
nothing prevents us, therefore, from lining our criticisms with a criticism of politics, from taking sides in politics, i.e. from entering into real struggles and identifying ourselves with them. this does not mean that we shall confront the world with new doctrinaire principles and proclaim: here is the truth, on your knees before it! it means that we shall develop for the world new principles from existing principles... We shall not say:
Abandon your struggles, they are mere folly; let us provide you with the true campaign-slogans. instead we shall simply show the world why it is struggling, and consciousness of this is a thing it *must* acquire whether it wishes or not. [...]
it will then become plain that our task is not to draw a sharp mental line between past and future but to *complete* the thought of the past. lastly, it will become plain that mankind will not begin any *new* work, but will consciously bring about the completion of its old work."
genuflecting kelley