[lbo-talk] Louis Proyect on Party Building

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Sun Dec 25 06:14:45 PST 2011


Charles is pretty much correct -- perhaps a bit overstated, but still pretty accurate.

Wojtek is trapped in the ideology of "Critical Thinking," a mode of thought which finds _all_ active response to the world illegitimate or deficient since they fail to 'fit' preexisting forms. Eisenhower's rejection of the "critical thinkers" on his staff probably saved 10s of thousands of lives. (Look up the incident of the Remagen (sp?) bridge. Many on his staff thought they should not risk changing their plans for crossing the Rhine, even though this bridge (damaged but not destroyed) was there for their use.

Critical thinking puts a barrier between the thinker and anything new. It is a mode of thinking which differs radically both from theoretical work and from the self-criticism on required for effective political practice. Bernstein & the Mensheviks were the very Incarnation of Critical Thinking. It is a particularly dangerous form of idealism.

Carrol

----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of c b Sent: Sunday, December 25, 2011 7:36 AM To: lbo-talk Subject: [lbo-talk] Louis Proyect on Party Building

Wojtek S ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- In our environment, the troops on the ground are few and scarce, and they are disorganized as well - so the primary task is the mobilization of troops rather than simply organizing what is already there.

^^^^^ CB: Suddenly, with the Occupation there are militant partisans of the working class, very well organized and in every major city and many other cities. They have their own "press" because of the internet. ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk



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