[lbo-talk] Liberalism (Was Re: Nietzsche)

JBrown72073 at cs.com JBrown72073 at cs.com
Mon Jul 9 13:26:31 PDT 2007


Charles Brown writes:
>I agree with those who say that Karl Marx was both a scientist and that he
>raised moral arguments against capitalism, even though he famously opposed
>"moralizing". Of course that's a contradiction, but I think it's a surface
>contradiction. I think he opposed only the conventional moralists of
>capitalism.

I don't think it's a contradiction, if you look at what he's attacking. He opposes not just the conventional moralists of capitalism but its morality-based critics. For example, in his argument against utopian socialists such as Owen and Fourier: "Only from the standpoint of being the most suffering class does the proletariat exist for them." These socialists believed that by the force of their moral ideas everyone will get on board without the necessity of struggle, sound familiar? This kind of moralism is counterposed to analyzing power and class interest. Morality as a basis for action is insufficient, possibly class-blinkered, sometimes covering for an anti-working class agenda (or an aristocratic one). But this doesn't mean you need go at change amorally.

Jenny Brown

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