Defining lumpen (was Re: [lbo-talk] An Appeal to the U.S. Antiwar Movement)

John Lacny jlacny at earthlink.net
Fri May 13 16:41:05 PDT 2005


Doug Henwood:


> Oh please. It's bad enough to insult Chuck, but to do it
> without any credibility to your social analysis should be
> embarrassing.

I'm sorry you don't find this humorous, so I will desist. However, do note that I did not refer to him as a lumpenproletarian. Perhaps he is a lumpenbourgeois? I don't know. But he's definitely a lumpen. Granted, it's more a cultural than a purely sociological characterization, but I thought that you of all people, Doug, were actually into that kind of thing. The lumpen is a social being with no formal class loyalties and no discipline, more or less asocial and prone to mindlessness and adventurism on those unfortunate occasions when the lumpen actually enters politics. You'll recall that Marx actually referred to Louis Bonaparte as a lumpen. Cops are lumpen. Scabs are lumpen. Blustery, grandiose, anti-social megalomaniacs are lumpen. So that's what I'm talking about.

- - - - - - - - - - John Lacny http://www.johnlacny.com

Tell no lies, claim no easy victories



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