----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Pollak" <mpollak at panix.com> To: "LBO-Talk" <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Sunday, July 26, 2009 9:38 AM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Blue Dogs cashing in
>
> On Sun, 26 Jul 2009, Marv Gandall wrote:
>
>> "It is very easy to inveigh against slavery and similar things in general
>> terms, and to give vent to high moral indignation at such infamies.
>> Unfortunately all that this conveys is only what everyone knows, namely,
>> that these institutions of antiquity are no longer in accord with our
>> present conditions and our sentiments, which these conditions determine.
>> But it does not tell us one word as to how these institutions arose, why
>> they existed, and what role they played in history. AND WHEN WE EXAMINE
>> THESE QUESTIONS, WE ARE COMPELLED TO SAY?HOWEVER CONTRADICTORY AND
>> HERETICAL IT MAY SOUND?THAT THE INTRODUCTION OF SLAVERY UNDER THE
>> CONDITIONS PREVAILING AT THAT TIME WAS A GREAT STEP FORWARD."
>
>> http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1877/anti-duhring/ch16.htm
>
> A delightful text. But it has nothing to do with our debate. Engels is
> talking about the wrongness of condemning *past eras* by our own moral
> code, and specifically that we should not consider the Greeks evil because
> they kept slaves; this is an argument against present-ism. But this has
> nothing to do with judging our own time by our moral code. And it has
> even less to do with explaining the existence of competing moral codes --
> the existence of which is something of a mystery if, as Engels asserts in
> this passage, they correspond to modes of production, since Engels also
> assumes in this passage that there is only one of those per era, nevermind
> per society.
>
> Michael
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