tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264937.post3490796573125349086..comments2024-03-26T12:23:29.784-04:00Comments on Philosoraptor: Fascism, Communism and the Confederacy: Winston Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08780746334199630779noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264937.post-13005477473639865382016-10-05T09:48:17.161-04:002016-10-05T09:48:17.161-04:00Anyway, I think we agree there, but where we disag...Anyway, I think we agree there, but where we disagree as far as I can tell is in the estimation that Marx would've been an apologist for the USSR. Given his vigorous commitment to and dependence on freedom of the press, speech, and dissent in his life and works, I really don't see how you can argue that he would drop all of that in favor of a government which also failed to realize the The Mystichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00813641115915460692noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264937.post-21161531252889279062016-10-05T09:48:09.676-04:002016-10-05T09:48:09.676-04:00Well that's fair. I don't know to what de...Well that's fair. I don't know to what degree Marx was really serious about that position. I suspect that he probably fancied himself serious about it, but given all the evidence from his more popular works that you reference (which is indeed ubiquitous, as you say), I agree with Cohen at least that he was trying to dance around an actual understanding of his project as a moral one. The Mystichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00813641115915460692noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264937.post-90570447942081408232016-10-04T18:28:30.022-04:002016-10-04T18:28:30.022-04:00Mystic, the place where I think disagree was in as...Mystic, the place where I think disagree was in as to whether merely descriptive nature of the project was something Marx himself believed in. I'm a hater, I guess, and consider Marx to have been strategically misleading on this as on many other points. I took it that you consider this to be more of a "tension" in his view, which he was unaware of. I also think that Marx would have Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264937.post-86798820223979618382016-10-04T17:19:03.786-04:002016-10-04T17:19:03.786-04:00Incidentally, and before the Marxathon really take...Incidentally, and before the Marxathon really takes off, I wanted to say that the answers to my question seem cogent to me--thanks for that.<br /><br />I take it that incidental displays of Soviet symbols is a kind of secondary / less important phenomenon.Winston Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08780746334199630779noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264937.post-48150510726282474552016-10-04T17:07:47.113-04:002016-10-04T17:07:47.113-04:00Yeah, I thought that was pretty much what I said, ...Yeah, I thought that was pretty much what I said, actually, Anonymous. I didn't think Marx was genuinely engaged in a non-moral venture. As I pointed out, it would be pretty hard to make any sense of what he was doing if he were really operating without any moral basis. I was saying that he did declare himself to be doing so, and that this was one of the problems with his theoretical work.The Mystichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00813641115915460692noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264937.post-29449261847622585372016-10-04T16:52:34.054-04:002016-10-04T16:52:34.054-04:00I discagree with Mystic's interpretation at se...I discagree with Mystic's interpretation at several points, but only have time for one right now: Marx's apparent dispassion is quite superficial. His is a theory very much in the capital-R Romantic vein, a glorious tale of redemption and the recovery of human nature through a terrible struggle. It's as moralistic as, say, <i>the Lord of the Rings</i>. Tolkien doesn't have to tellAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264937.post-33716075097661531152016-10-04T12:39:06.519-04:002016-10-04T12:39:06.519-04:00Re Marx, basically what The Mystic said.
I woul...Re Marx, basically what The Mystic said. <br /><br />I would only add that some of the critiques of capitalism that Marx made were accurate IMO e.g. that it would tend to overproduce, that business owners would tend to take advantage of workers (btw, this is a criticism that Adam Smith shared). However, it was Marx's proposed solutions that were misguided. That is true even accounting for Lewis Carrollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5264937.post-60270791983872294862016-10-04T10:07:33.443-04:002016-10-04T10:07:33.443-04:00Well, for what it's worth, Marx would've d...Well, for what it's worth, Marx would've detested the Soviet Union.<br /><br />He was a vociferous advocate for freedom of the press and free speech, and he was, of course, completely against the elite class that actually exploited the USSR during its communism-by-name-only brand of totalitarianism.<br /><br />Lenin, not so much. Obviously, that dude was basically the founder of The Mystichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00813641115915460692noreply@blogger.com