[lbo-talk] RE: Cultural Change

Jim Farmelant farmelantj at juno.com
Thu May 6 08:11:22 PDT 2004


On Thu, 6 May 2004 10:08:39 -0400 Ted Winslow <egwinslow at rogers.com> writes:
>
> Miles Jackson wrote:
>
> > To be fair, this wasn't on a Beatles album; it was on Plastic Ono
> > Band. Woj has a point here. Even purportedly "political" Beatles
> > songs are quite naive--e.g., "Revolution":
> >
> > You tell me it's the institution
> > well you know you better free your mind instead

The real problem with that line in John's song was the word "instead." Emancipation requires both changes in consciousness and changes in social institutions. Both are the outcomes of praxis and those two phenomena are inseperable. Wasn't that the real message of Marx's *Theses on Feuerbach*?


> >
> > (As if higher consciousness will automagically solve
> > social problems!) John was a brilliant songwriter,
> > but political strategy was never his forte.
>
> K. Marx, in the letter Kelley just quoted, wrote:
>
> > Our programme must be: the reform of consciousness not through
> dogmas
> > but by analyzing mystical consciousness obscure to itself, whether
> it
> > appear in religious or political form. It will then become plain
> that
> > the world has long since dreamed of something of which it needs
> only
> > to become conscious for it to possess it in reality. It will then
> > become plain that our task is not to draw a sharp mental line
> between
> > past and future, but to complete the thought of the past. Lastly,
> it
> > will becomes plain that mankind will not be doing any new work,
> but
> > will consciously bring about the completion of its old work.
> >
> <http://marxists.anu.edu.au/archive/marx/works/1843/letters/43_09.htm>
>
> Ted
>
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>

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