[lbo-talk] Post-Marxist Era (Was Re: Keynes: Marx and the Koran)

Robert Wrubel bobwrubel at yahoo.com
Sun Sep 23 09:26:55 PDT 2007


Carl: There are two materialist critiques of human history: Freud's and Marx's. If anything, Freud's subject-matter is anterior and more fundamental. I imagine that human beings will never be freed from the twists and turns of the unconscious, but they may yet learn to create an economy and society around other assumptions than private property. On that I agree with you.

bobW

--- Carl Remick <carlremick at gmail.com> wrote:


> On 9/22/07, andie nachgeborenen
> <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> > The Marxist left is no longer a force. Marxism,
> once a
> > name to conjure by, whether to inspire or to
> alarm, is
> > an irrelevancy. I underline that this fact does
> not
> > undermine the validity of the propositions of
> > historical materialism or of Marxian critiques of
> > capitalism as sociological
> economic-political-moral
> > theory. The theory is pretty much as true as ever.
> But
> > that's not the same as saying that Marxism is
> > something to be reckoned with politically. Nor is
> that
> > fact likely to change anytime in the foreseeable
> > future.
>
> I don't see how Marxism can remain viable as theory
> if it is spent as
> a political force. AFAIC Marx's entire point as a
> materialist is that
> thought *cannot* be separated from action. Cue the
> the 11th
> Feuerbach: "Philosophers have only interpreted the
> world in various
> ways; the point is to change it." If the aim now is
> just to wander
> around the Museum of Marxism dusting the display
> cases, we might as
> well just shut down the museum and be done with it.
> No praxis, no
> thaxis.
>
> What fascinates me is that there seems to be a
> general collapse of
> actionable Big Ideas worldwide currently. All cant
> aside, no
> *thinking* person these days honestly views religion
> as anything but
> an embarrassment to humankind. Meanwhile, Freud has
> been reduced to
> an Aflac commercial: Quack! Quack! Even hegemonic
> neoliberalism is
> recognized by its more thoughtful proponents as a
> spent force -- as
> being like Wile E. Coyote running way beyond the
> cliff's edge, doomed
> to plummet to the earth once he glances down. What
> better bellwether
> than Francis Fukuyama, who clearly now sees no
> future for his
> liberalism-regnant "end of history."
>
> The contradictions of capitalism are gathering
> momentum at an
> unprecedented rate globally -- the system's
> unalterable dynamic as a
> force for mass exploitation, alienation and
> environmental despoliation
> has never been more obvious. We're going to need
> some good ideas,
> fast, to get humankind out of its worsening
> predicament. Marxism
> still seems like a good starting point to develop
> the *practical*
> solutions that are urgently needed.
>
> Carl
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