Michael Pugliese:
> My copy of, "History and Class Consciousness, " by Lukacs, published by UK
> left press, Merlin, I bought at Collets in London. Blurbed on the back by
> Christopher Hitchens when published in 1971. He isn't someone unacquainted
> with the marxist classics from Trotsky, Deutscher, Luxemburg and many others.
> Methinks alot of the detractors of Hitchens (and I don't think any of
> those defending him here are w/o criticisms of his schizo turn) here on lbo-
> talk have read that much of Hitchens over the decades. Read up all those
> volumes published by Verso over the yrs. collecting his writings. Esp. you
> Gordon, Hitchens has written a bit about Victor Serge, who I'd think is one
> of your heroes, being a Bolshevik for a time that never lost his libertarian
> socialist/anarchist grounding.
Because people have read things does not mean they understand them or are capable of thinking about the issues they address. In the "girth" interview, published in the mailing list just now, he says that people are astounded to find out that Marx admired capitalism and considered it to be the most revolutionary force to have ver existed in history. It is clear, then -- unless the remarks were fiction -- that he spends his time discussing politics with people who have not even read _The_Communist_Manifesto_ in the sense of taking in anything that it said; something like playing tennis with ten-year-olds and considering oneself a champion because one wins most of the time. It's not surprising to me that someone operating on that level would wake up one morning after a troubled sleep and find himself transformed into an enormous liberal.
But outside of the humor, so what? Does anyone think Monkey Boy's war would be slowed down or stopped if Hitchens wasn't supporting it?
-- Gordon