Valid Materialist Theory

Roger Odisio rodisio at igc.org
Fri Jan 28 13:23:03 PST 2000


Doug Henwood wrote:


> Roger Odisio wrote:
>
> >A conspiracy is an agreement between 2 or more people to commit a crime or
> >illegal act. You can only deny the Kennedy killing was a conspiracy by
> >embracing the single bullet theory. Good luck with that one.
>
> What does it matter, really? That's my objection to this whole line.
> Embracing the conspiracy theory of JFK's murder leads you to some
> pretty surreal mythmaking about him - that he was a closet dove, or
> too much an anti-racist, neither of which is true. I find it
> perfectly plausible that the ruling class would have good reasons to
> want to kill Martin Luther King; once he started talking about
> imperialism and class exploitation, he wasn't safe for liberals
> anymore. But JFK? C'mon.

I don't embrace"the" conspiracy theory of the murder. I said Kennedy was wiped by a group of two or more people. That leads me, of necessity, to no such speculative flights either about who did it and why, or of surreal mythmaking about Kennedy. I thought I made that clear. For example, in my first message to Charles (thurs.) I said "any of assorted rogue elements could have done it."" and "The ruling class doesn't have near the day-to-day control over matters you imply." I disagreed with Charles when he said it was clear that JFK was killed by an identifiable section of the ruling class, and in particular, that it had to be one of its more powerful elements.

In the few things I have written here, I concentrated on the reaction of the ruling class, once the deed was done. What were their fears, what did they see as the imminent crisis that must be surmounted? What led them to the particular coverup they chose and how did they get away with it?

Yet the question of who did it still interests me (though I'll try to avoid burdoning you and the list with that part of it). At base, it's an important question because of its bearing on the relationship between political democracy and capitalism. Capitalism is the denial of economic democracy, and political democracy is in large part designed to divert people's attention from that fact. So what happens when the facade of political democracy crumbles a bit, like when there is a change in govt outside of elections? This is the nature of the crisis the ruling class faced when JFK was killed. The fact that most people (including you?) didn't and don't see it as a crisis testifies to the extent of the socialization that has been accomplished.

RO



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