[lbo-talk] Liberalism and socialism

Charles Brown cbrown at michiganlegal.org
Tue Jan 24 09:55:16 PST 2006


andie nachgeborenen TYhis is, as you would put it, a slander. In your case it's a lie. You know better. We've known each other for over 25 years, scary thought.

^^^^^ CB; It's a lie you tell on yourself, then. I'm just going by what you say on this list. Have you forgotten all the times you declared yourself a liberal here ?

^^^^

I'm a socialist, always have been, and don't support retaining capitalism, as you bloody well know. Shall I accuse you of supporting the Stalin terror because you're a communist? As you will see from by definition below, nothing in liberalism as I understand it calls for retaining capitalism.

^^^^ CB: Then you are making up your own esoteric meaning for the word "liberal". How many other people, besides extreme rightwingers, equate liberalism with anti-capitalism or socialism ? If you don't know that your themes and theses in posting to these list over the last 7 years or so put in question whether or not you support retaining capitalism then you need to go look in the archives. Or maybe you should go ask some of the other socialists around here.

^^^^

Is socialism inconsitent with representtaive government, universal syfferagem extensive political and cibil libertues, and the acceptance of basic disagreements about fundamental values?

^^^ CB: Is liberalism consistent with abolition of private property in the basic means of production , i.e. historical materialism ?

^^^^

If so, why? HM only implies communism is you believfe in some sort of inevitability thesis that no sane person can accept today.

^^^^ CB: Lets just keep track of this. You are claiming that there is some kind of historical materialism that does not imply communism. You do know that historical materialism is the theory of _The Manifesto of the Communist Party_ , don't you ? Any "historical materialism" that does not aim to win communism is no longer historical materialism.

^^^^^^

As for revolution, so one has the faintist idea what that means today. I support and particpate in socialist struggles as much as I can, though again it is hard to know what to do in the circumstances.

^^^^^ CB: Speak for your self. Check out Cuba and Venezuela to regain, maybe, a faint idea of what revolution is .



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