On 11 Mar 2003 at 9:35, Tyler Durden wrote: > "Does it mean that such observations are invalid just because > Marx predicted them?"
Actually, I didn't write that, though I quoted it.
Marx was both untruthful, and spectacularly in error.
Marx was primarily an economist, and a lot of what he had to say bore listening to. And there's a core there that I believe is probably correct. For instance, despite your examples, there are industries where consolidation is occuring, and in ways that closely resemble what Marx predicted. A good example is the silicon chip industry. How many top-line fabs still exist (ie, capable of 0.38um and below)? The cost of such fabs is now in the billions, so there are only a few companies that can afford it. Amongst piles of other things, Marx predicted exactly this.
(Again, however, this doesn't mean I find Marx's predictions all that appealing, nor is communism-as-it-has-existed any system I'd want to live under again.)
If commies actually believed what they said, if they still believed the prophecies, then they would still be working at labor organization, rather than at conspiracy.
Well, here's where your rant sideswipes reality at its closest. Today's Marxists definitely seem, by and large, to be more interested in ideology and banner-waving than in helping, say, Haitian workers receive a living wage. When the commies of the world start drop-shipping rifles to striking miners in Bangladesh, then I'll be interested.
Ever since Lenin, a core principle of communism has been to know the truth, and to lie about it.
Pooey. Here's where you seem distinctly skewed in your thinking by the Soviets. The Chinese communists have a much more interesting history, The "lying" probably doesn't really get going in China until about 1960 or so. The Chinese communists (particularly prior to 1949) were an absolutely necessary force in China from the 1920s until the mid 50s. (And this is probably not because they were communist per se, but more that the Chinese communists represented an imminently Chinese clustering of ideals and pooled resources in reaction to a murderous occupation by the Japanese and collusion by Chiang Kai Shek.)
The point is, Chinese communism didn't have "lies" as a core principal. The lies came much later.
-TD
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