Wishful thinking by Justin Schwartz 11 February 2002 18:12 UTC Charles' headline implies that I wish that Marxism were dead, and that is why I hold this false belief. In fact I regret that it is dead. so if the belief is false, my adherence to it must have another explanation. Charles says that because Marxsim is true, itw ill be effective. That is a fallacy. Truth is neither necessary nor sufficient for efficacy. Moreover there is the fact that Marxism is discredited; and don't start on the electoral success of the former and remaining CPs in Russia and Eastern Europe, which are not Marxist or revolutionary in any sense. It's time to wake up, guys and gals. Godot aint coming (back). we have blaze our own trails, carry what we can from the wreck. jks
^^^^^^ CB: No, no, Justin, I'm the one wishing in this thread. I'm putting forth a utopian socialism. Engels has turned into his opposite. But seriously, I only meant that because Marxism is true, it has a tendency to fulfill itself. But there can be countervailing influences to this tendency. How this struggle will come out in the end is difficult to say. But I don't think you can count out a revival of Marxism, because its truths are confirmed everyday, say in Argentina. I mean the people in Argentina may be foreclosed from becoming Marxists or communists en masse today because of the specific anti-communist institutions that capitalism has built up in response to the SU and the first wave of socialist revolutions. But what about an Argentine depression in the next generation , when anti-communist institutions have faded, and people have no anti-communist trends like today. Marxism will seem like an amazinginly accurate description of what is happening to them. So, it is hard to count out Marxist revival forever , as you do. Also, I would say that people looking at history with objective eyes will not say that Marxism is discredited at all, but confirmed more than all other historical theories. This can only increase the chances that there will grow mass enthusiasm for it again in the future.
