You're probably right that you must do more than simply class a society under a certain rubric (capitalist or socialist) under one column, pile up the dead bodies under a corresponding column, and count. You must be able to distinguish, somehow, between evils that are intrinsic to a particular social formation and those that have lower-level causes. You can't do that, of course, without an empirically-grounded social theory that allows you to distinguish system-level effects from conjunctural effects. Marxism is such a theory. Whether it is the best available theory is an entirely different matter, but if you want to enter into that debate you have to do more than impugn the theory without argument, or wave the Black Book, or even point out anomalies in the theory. You have to argue for a better social theory. There are many out there on offer: what's yours?
Michael McIntyre
>>> george.thomas at graffiti.net - 2/20/01 3:36 AM >>>
Yoshie Furuhashi: Can capitalism reproduce itself without cops, spies, armed forces, weapons of mass destruction, etc., without any repression of unions, political parties, social movements, etc. -- especially in poor nations, most importantly during a politico-economic crisis?
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Has any government done this? Can any government do this, regardless of (or despite) it's politico-economic system?
George Thomas
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