[lbo-talk] INSTANT POPULISM: A short history of populism old and new

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Thu Dec 2 08:08:02 PST 2010


On 12/2/2010 7:26 AM, Ted Winslow wrote:
>
> As the continuing degree and extent of proletarian prejudice and
> superstition demonstrate, Marx and Engels were badly mistaken about
> the relation of capitalism to the development of "proletarian"
> enlightenment . So long as the degree of enlightenment required for
> its creation remains undeveloped, "socialism" in their sense -
> "universal emancipation" - is impossible.
>

If I understand this argument correctly, people must be individually "enlightened" before socialism is possible. Based on my reading of Marx (I'll spare you the quotes), this is exactly backwards: individual characteristics are a product of social relations, and thus socialism is the precondition for the type of "enlightened" individuals you valorize. As in our discussions about social change, the fundamental fallacy here is that social structure is a precipitate of individual psychological characteristics. That's capitalist ideology through and through, as old Whiskers pointed out incessantly.

Miles



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