[lbo-talk] Why Capitalism Cannot be Tamed

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Thu Nov 4 05:24:52 PDT 2010


Alan Rudy: Orthodoxy?! Weird. Western Marxist cultural studies (think Dick Hebdige or Stuart Hall or Raymond Williams if you'd like) hues to Marxist orthodoxy?

Carrol: "Orthodoxy" is a pretty slippery term, so slippery as to be almost useless, & probably anyone who uses it is a bore. One _could_ arbitrarily define (all definitions are arbitrary) Williams as _the_ representative of Orthodoxy. Then Bob Avakian is heteroeox, as is Charlesd on this list. And so forth. Postone, if I recall correctly, never uses the term, but rather calls the interpretation of Marx which he rejects as "traditional," and (roughly) defines traditional Marxism as assuming that "Labor" is a transhistorical entity, while value-theorists from Rubin on have increasingly focused on "labor" as a capitalist category, which does not exist in any non-capitalist society. I think something like that is probably correct - but those who throw the term "orthodoxy" about are merely stroking their own prejudices, and it is pointless to argue with them. The subject will keep slipping awayand no one will know what anyone is talking about.

Carrol



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