<!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 style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=furuhashi.1@osu.edu href="mailto:furuhashi.1@osu.edu">Yoshie Furuhashi</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> Saturday, June 29, 2002 8:24 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: Determinism</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>>This obsession with 'what Marx said' is one of the weaknesses of
<BR>>Marxism. Marxists have a tendency to see Marx as a sort of prophet
<BR>>whose writings comprise a perfect materialist 'revelation' that can
<BR>>. I prefer to think <BR>>for myself instead of follow some old
dead guy.<BR>><BR>>Joe<BR><BR>You are not "thinking for yourself" here, as
what you wrote above <BR>simply reproduces an old charge that "Marxism is a
secular religion." <BR>In fact, the charge that "X is a secular religion with
its own dogma" <BR>must be at least as old as conservative reactions against
modern <BR>revolutions in the age of the Enlightenment. Here's an example
from <BR>Edmund Burke: "It [the French Revolution] is a revolution of doctrine
<BR>and theoretic dogma. It has a much greater resemblance to those
<BR>changes which have been made upon religious grounds in which a spirit <BR>of
proselytism makes an essential part" ("Thoughts on French <BR>Affairs,"
1791). In short, your rhetoric is stuck on the right in <BR>the 18th
century!<BR>-- <BR>Yoshie<BR><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000080>yoshie, i'm surprised at you. i've grown
accustomed to your comments being the even tempered voice of reason so often on
this message board. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000080></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000080>the fact that the charge about marxism being a
secular religion is old or has parallels in the 18th century is
irrelevant. it's still true that marxism is accepted in many
quarters with faith at the level of religion; true long ago and true
now. most politics produces a reaction in the "true believers"
that is indistinguishable from religious faith. organized
religion is deeply involved in politics and power, to a fault in my
opinion. also, most politics is an accident of birth as is most
religion. (not including the free thinkers on this message board of
course. ;-) )</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000080></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000080>to make the blanket generalization that pointing out
the connection between political fanaticism and religious fanaticism, political
faith and religious faith was brought forward in the 18th century only
establishes that the fact was known centuries ago and is still
true. conservative edmund burke was not the only one making this
observation, then or now. burke wasn't immune himself from being a
dogmatist of the political right, since his comments were far from objective,
and his social class was deeply threatened by the french
revolution.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000080></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000080></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000080>if joe isn't thinking for himself, who is he thinking
for? don't accuse him of not thinking simply because you
disagree with him, or see the issue from a different
perspective. that's a cheap shot.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000080></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000080>R</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>