[lbo-talk] The Ideology Problem

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Mon May 3 20:51:47 PDT 2010


SA wrote:
>
> shag carpet bomb wrote:
>
> > well, i guess i was thinking that mass political movements refer to
> > movements inspired by marxism, not Liberalism. Maybe I am misreading.
>
> What I meant was that the real, existing, historical mass political
> movements that were "inspired by Marxism" weren't really inspired by
> what *you* think of as Marxism. Their Marxism (except for a few
> heterodox intellectuals) was about Progress, Science, Justice,
> Democracy, etc.

But no social movement has _ever_ been _inspired_ by Marxism. Rather social movements (including the Russian Revolution) come from a whole complex of "inspirations" and as they gain momentum _some_ elements of that movement adopt Marxism as making most sense of what they are doing.

I think all sorts of srious intellectual confusion about history stems from underestimating the magnitude of the '60s. Take the '60s seriously, and textbook banalities about social movements and revolutions dissolve. And don't forget the '60s were worldwide, not just a U.S. phenomenon.

Carrol



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