[lbo-talk] Time to Get Religion

Charles Brown cbrown at michiganlegal.org
Mon Dec 4 12:10:35 PST 2006


Yoshie Furuhashi : The Marxist tradition once had a world view, a world view (more specifically a philosophy of history) of inevitable dialectical progress, from pre-capitalism, to capitalism, to socialism, the world view that the Marxist tradition borrowed in part from Christianity and in part from liberalism. It no longer does, though it remains useful as it supplies a theoretical framework and analytical tools. Since the world view of inevitable dialectical progress was manifestly out of this world, the Marxist tradition, as a theory, may be said to have improved as a result of the loss of that world view.

The problem: a school of thought can be built around a theoretical framework and analytical tools, but a social movement cannot be. A social movement, especially one with an ambition to present a superior alternative to capitalist modernity, needs a world view, a world view that inspires people to have faith in the work they must do in the face of adversity. Have Marxists in particular and socialists and leftists in general invented a new world view? No.

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CB: The thought I have often similar to this one is that for people to take action, and persist in action over a long period of time and difficult obstacles, they must have _certainty_. Philosophical skepticism does not provide the emotional basis for effective practice, sustained effort toward a goal. It's good for theorizing, but not for an approach in which practice is the test of theory, wherein the thing is to change the world, not just interpret it.

Religion , of course, has lots of certainty. Faith is a defining characteristic. The central principle is certainty in the existence and rightness of God or some other principle. So, Yoshie focuses in on a cogent issue here,in that that aspect of religion - certainty - is necessary for people to engage in sustained action and difficult struggle.

Marxism's "inevitability" myth, was, I think, promoted by Marx ,Engels and Stalinists in order to provide the certainty needed to sustain people in very difficult activities. Now inevitability has been exposed as untrue. About the only candidate to replace it now is a version of Luxemburg's "Socialism or barbarism", some level of catastrophism. Again unfortunately, with the potential for nuclear war and global heating, this necessity of the end of capitalism is not a myth.



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