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February 22nd, 2018, 05:06 PM | #391 |
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I see communism as a variant of religion, but a religion that promises happiness on earth, not in the other world. Of course, this is a very noble idea, but its implementation turned into rivers of blood, suffering and death (Soviet Russia, China, Cambodia). It seems to me that the source of evil is human nature. If we look at the history of mankind, we will see that people throughout their existence only did what they killed, maimed, destroyed and tortured. With the development progress, torments became more sophisticated. I believe that there are idealists who really want to make life better, but the majority of people only want to take the place of oppressors for benefit. |
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February 22nd, 2018, 06:43 PM | #392 | |
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It was disappointing to discover that gangsters were generally more trustworthy and altruistic than corporate executives, even if they were much more likely to beat you up or kill you. |
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February 22nd, 2018, 06:55 PM | #393 | |
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You can oppose communism -- I do-- while still having an appreciation for some the analytical points that Marx makes. Does "class struggle" exist? Sure. Moreso in some times and places than others, but I don't discount it as intrinsically off base. Its a legitimate and useful way to look at what's happening in the politics and economy of a society; its not the only axis of analysis, but its one of them. Are there communist regimes that look a lot like religions? Yes . . . if you think of China's "Two Whatevers" = We will resolutely uphold whatever policy decisions Chairman Mao made, and unswervingly follow whatever instructions Chairman Mao gave . . . that's more like catechism than a political analysis. But you can find similar sorts of "dittoheads" in other political traditions. The real failing of communism in power is the the problem of power itself; if the Party comes before the State, then its vulnerable to abuse without check. |
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February 22nd, 2018, 08:42 PM | #394 |
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I am not a big fan of libertarian philosophical principles. The usual libertarian idea is to party on down making loud music at 3am when the neighbours have to go the work next day; and someone else to pay the bills and clean the mess afterwards. "Libertarian" is an alibi for sociopathic selfishness and ignoring duty and responsibility. Many modern right wing politicians typify this despicable pattern and dress it up with smoke screens such as "deregulation", "getting government off the back of the people" etc. Prince John, the Sheriff of Nottingham and Sir Guy of Gisbourne are always with us.
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February 23rd, 2018, 02:53 AM | #395 |
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This is a controversial statement. Here is what he thinks about the class struggle russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev:
The logical structure of Marxism in the theory of class struggle is absolutely contradictory and philosophically naive. Marx holds on to extreme scholastic realism of concepts. Abstractions of thought he takes over the reality of being. To characterize as capitalist and bourgeois, some society as a whole with all its sophisticated culture is an abstraction and hypostasis concepts. The same abstraction and hypostasis concepts is the proletariat as a universal class, and the proletarian society and culture. Lenin recognized himself that there can't be proletarian culture, and can only be the introduction of the proletariat to culture and mastery of culture. We will see that the main logical disadvantage of Marx is the uncritical mixing of extreme realism with extreme nomination. The very concept of class and social group cannot be defined only economically, only in relation to production, as Marx wants. Social differentiation of society occurs on other grounds, is determined by other principles. And here are his thoughts about the religious nature of Marxism: - strict dogmatic system, despite practical flexibility; - the division between Orthodoxy and heresy; - the immutability of the philosophy of science, the Holy Scripture of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, which can only be interpreted, but not questioned; - division of the world into two parts-believers-faithful and unbelievers-infidels; -hierarchically organized Communist Church with directives from above; transfer of conscience to the Supreme body of the Communist party, to the Council; -totalitarianism peculiar only to religions; -the fanaticism of the faithful; -excommunication and the execution of heretics; - prevention of secularization within the group of believers; -acknowledgement of original sin (exploitation). Last edited by Mosco Vito; February 23rd, 2018 at 03:12 AM.. |
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February 23rd, 2018, 03:57 AM | #396 | |
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But as a historian, I find that Marx added a tremendous amount to how we understand a society. Before Marx, we really don't have a systematic analysis of societies based on "who owns what" . . .after Marx we do. That's a huge contribution to understanding, even if you're not a "Marxist". I don't think you can write a useful history of, say, slavery without asking the question "who owned slaves?", "what were they worth?", and "how did this effect free labor economically?" Similarly, I don't think you can look at the US health insurance system without reference to class interests. The classic battleground for Marxist vs liberal and other interpretations of history is the French Revolution; I don't take the Marxists as being "the last word" -- there are "classic" historians who have compelling interpretations too . . . but there's no way you could say that you can ignore people like Albert Soboul. And Marx himself writes a terrific analysis of Louis Napoleon, called "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon " --- which is really incisive reporting on contemporary events (for Marx). |
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February 23rd, 2018, 04:34 AM | #397 | |
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Yes, Marx made a great contribution to the development of sociology, no doubt. The same Berdyaev (he was once a Marxist) all his life thought of Marx as a genius. But I often see that the works of Marx make dogma, a "sacred cow". I prefer to look at the class struggle as simply one of the manifestations of the evil nature of man. What do you think about the malthusianism/neo-malthusianism? Can this doctrines help to fight poverty? |
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February 23rd, 2018, 05:36 AM | #398 | |||||
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Malthus seems to me far less relevant and interesting than Marx. In his 18th Brumaire Marx writes Quote:
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February 23rd, 2018, 08:42 AM | #399 |
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Communists of many countries saw Marxism not as a theory, but as a tool to change the negative reality, the key component of which was the poverty of the masses. I mentioned Malthus as a thinker who called for control over the population. His main idea was developed. For example, the Italian philosopher Julius Evola wrote:
Overpopulation exacerbates the problem of unemployment, just as inevitable (due to their very nature) intensification of production processes leading to increased economic obsession, the further enslavement of man, the reduction of free area... Zombart rightly believed that the decline in the population could be one of the few means to inflict a fatal blow to large capitalism. Ok, we can not call the torment of one another "evil" and "the realization of financial interests", but the essence will be the same. |
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February 23rd, 2018, 08:49 AM | #400 | ||
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They're both men whose ideas advance our understanding of the world in important ways, bu they're not prophets; its pointless to blame them for not being. Quote:
And as for today, you can see population falling rapidly in advanced industrial nations like Japan (and soon Korea and China) without changing the economic system in any way. So its off base in the 13th century and its wrong in the 21st century too. In general, you can't trust vague philosophers ruminating on the end of capitalism . . . its just pointless. The world has adopted markets, of different flavors in China than the US, Germany and Chile-- but with the exception of a few desperate states like Venezuela and North Korea, there's really no place that tries to replace the market with state control for allocating capital. |
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