>
>
>
>Justin Schwartz wrote:
> >
> >
> > The LTV is also supposedto help explain crises, but Marx lacks a
>coherent
> > crisis theory. The notes Engels worked up into CIII contain several
>stabs at
> > one, but not properly developed one.
> >
>
>I wonder. Early on (I forget which work) Marx comments that the
>separation of production and consumption establishes the _possibility_
>of crises. Perhaps that is _all_ a "theory" of crises can offer.
Maybe. The poor success of political economists in developing a theory of crisis since suggests you may be right. However, Marx never even got beyond the tentative drafting stages.
One of
>the stable things about capitalism is its extreme variability at the
>level of phenomena. A good deal of rather ephemeral marxology has gone
>into making Capital III "coherent" and "complete." Perhaps it's all
>wasted energy.
>
>Some of the more flagrant tactical and strategic blunders or omissions
>in communist history have come through assuming fundamental principles
>(e.g. the priority of class to all other relations) translate directly
>into strategic and tactical practice -- which leads to such bullshit as
>marxist (or "marxist") ignoring core issues such as the struggle for
>women's liberation and anti-marxists generating endless dual theories
>etc.
Quite. Though "dual theories" etc., involving ways to incorporate (say) women's oppression into histoirical materialist analysis, do not strike me as bullshit.
>
>Quantum mechanics is of little help in engineering a new electric range
>or determining the amount of baking powder in a receipt. The LTV
>resembles quantum mechanics more than it resembles _The Joy of Cooking_.
But it resembles neither of them very exactly. QM is probablistic, but it permits expremely precise predictions down to as many decismal places as you like, and you can in fact put it to work making computer chios (for example), and people do.
>Struggle towards the establishment of class solidarity and class
>readiness to fight resembles the latter more than the former.
>
Well, that's the basic thing. Workers of the world unite!
jks
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