>>> Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> 01/10/00 05:12PM >>>
Yoshie -
>Doug:
> >>In a communist society, if human beings ever achieve it, historical
> >>materialism is not likely to be an indispensable tool, and thus it can
> >>imagine its own future irrelevance and hopes to achieve it (and that is why
> >>Marx & Engels refrained from speaking in detail about what communism will
> >>be like, except in a negative manner, "limited for the most part to what
> >>will disappear").
> >Wow, this sounds almost religious - a Paradise on earth
>
>I don't think the elimination of capitalism -- a specific constraint upon
>possibilities of free development of human beings -- makes for a Paradise.
>The abolition of capitalism in itself, I think, is not likely to make root
>canals disappear, to take just one example.
No, but it's also not likely to make struggles over power and resources disappear. The notion that historical materialism wouldn't be needed after the abolition of capitalism makes it sound like they would. That's what struck me as religious. I think Foucault had a point when he said that Marxism was a dream of an end to History.
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CB: Well, that is the idea of what will happen with the abolition of capitalism. It is to be not just the abolition of capitalism , but of any type of exploiting classes. What do you see as dissappearing with the abolition of capitalism ?
CB