<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2716.2200" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT color=#000080>i believe what you're describing, joe, could be called the religion of marxism.   marx had sense enough to say he wasn't a marxist.    the marxist fanatics dogmatically picking over Marx's writings, like so many medieval scholars nitpicking biblical interpretations, renders the life, intelligence and vitality of marx into a dead, useless lump of words.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000080></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000080></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000080>by the way, does anyone care to comment on Marx's anti-Semitism?   or have i missed that discussion?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000080></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000080>R</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000080></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000080></FONT> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=joeG@ieee.org href="mailto:joeG@ieee.org">Joe R. Golowka</A> </DIV> <DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=lbo-talk@lists.panix.com href="mailto:lbo-talk@lists.panix.com">lbo-talk@lists.panix.com</A> </DIV> <DIV><B>Sent:</B> Friday, June 28, 2002 11:33 AM</DIV> <DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: Determinism </DIV></DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV>> Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2002 01:44:15 -0700<BR>> From: "R" <<A href="mailto:rhisiart@earthlink.net">rhisiart@earthlink.net</A>><BR>> Subject: Re:  Determinism<BR>><BR>> Marx's historical determinism spoils the whole marxist thing for me;<BR>> economics, social interaction and life isn't that simple or preordained.<BR>> determinism is not intellectually honest, only rigorous since it's harder<BR>> to lie to oneself than to tell the truth.   unless you're ari fleischer.<BR>><BR>> I wonder what would be an example from Marx of this sort of thing?<BR><BR>This obsession with 'what Marx said' is one of the weaknesses of Marxism.  Marxists have a tendency<BR>to see Marx as a sort of prophet<BR>whose writings comprise a perfect materialist 'revelation' that can be used to answer all of today's<BR>questions.  If you read Marxist literature they're constantly referencing things Marx said to support<BR>their position and criticizing other Marxists for "revising" Marx or "distorting" his works.  Many<BR>people on this list have done similar things.  It doesn't really matter what Marx thought about this<BR>idea or that idea, it matters whether or not that idea is valid or not.  So what if Marx said X, just<BR>cause he said something doesn't make it true.  He died a long time ago, get over it.  This treating<BR>Marx's writings as some sort of holy revelation gives Marxism a sort of pseudo-religious quality.  In<BR>practice Marxists often 'interpret' Marx so he says what they want him to say, just as most<BR>Christians 'interpret' the bible so it says what they want it to say.  Any ism named after a person<BR>is inherently dogmatic and inhibits freethought, to one degree or another.  I prefer to think for<BR>myself instead of follow some old dead guy.<BR><BR>Joe<BR><BR>"If the Nuremberg laws were applied today, then every Post-War American president would have to be<BR>hanged."  - Noam Chomsky<BR><BR></BODY></HTML>