>But why would having developed capitalism be a credit to Europe? What's so
chauvinistic about saddling Europe with
>having created the most comprehensive system of exploitation and oppression
>devised by human beings? Are we to credit Europe's conquered subjects with
>having created capitalism?
>
>Andrew Austin
>Green Bay, WI
These questions would have more punch if we weren't dealing with an
widespread academic Menshevik milieu which views capitalism as being a step
up in the evolutionary ladder. The reason that the Brenner thesis was so
widely accepted by such circles, and by "modernization" political
scientists of the Barrington Moore variety, is that it jibes with a kind of
undialectical assumption that the paeans to the bourgeoisie found in the
1848 Communist Manifesto have some kind of universal relevance. Marxism
broke with this outlook after 1914, but there is a powerful incentive for
middle-class radicals to adhere to the older view. If one can go flitting
about to academic conferences on an expense account making speeches in awe
of skyscrapers, jet planes and indoor plumbing using Marxish verbiage, then
this is like having your cake and eating it too.
Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
