[lbo-talk] BDL on Sweezy

T Fast tfast at yorku.ca
Sun Feb 29 19:46:49 PST 2004



> > Brad DeLong writes at:
> > >I would like Paul Sweezy to be remembered for the following passage:
> > >
> > >"The publication in 1952 of Stalin's Economic Problems of Socialism
> > >in the USSR would make possible today a more satisfactory reply.SIn
> > >the light of [Stalin's] explanationSI would like to amend the
> > >statement which Mr. Kazahaya criticizes.S[The amended statement]
> > >conveys my meaning more accurately than the original wording and is,
> > >I think entirely in accord with Stalin's view." (Paul Sweezy (1953),
> > >The Present as History (New York: Monthly Review Press), p. 352.)
> > >
> > >Paul Sweezy called himself an intellectual. Paul Sweezy publicly
> > >revised his opinion on an analytical issue in order to agree with
> > >the position taken by a genocidal tyrant. Fill in the blank: Paul
> > >Sweezy was a ________.
> >
> > Brad, this is a disgrace. What is the point of saying something so
> > cruel on the man's death? Is this a ham-handed attempt to police the
> > limits of acceptable discourse? It's worthy of Horowitz.
> >
> > Doug
>
> Disgraceful, indeed, and mega-stupid. Many thoroughly decent radicals
took
> until after 1956 to completely jettison Stalin. Brad De Long will never
> produce a work with 1/100th the cutting power of Monopoly Capital, and
he's
> a boob for drawing this dense conclusion.

Not to mention Sweezy refused to name names and took McCarthy. So in his own small way acted as a brake on the creeping fascism in America.

Travis



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