Michael,
Actually, I had said nothing more after 3 p.m. Thursday, when your
message came over aimed toward me. Several others have been involved
afterwards.
I am planning to write a paper with a title something like " 'Conspiracy
theory' is a CIA concept, not a Marxist concept". The CIA consciously
and vigorously promoted its use pejoratively from the late 1960s -- even
if it had been used before without a negative connotation -- so as to
become an anti-intellectual weapon ideologically. It's pretty
effective, actually.
It is now used most often as a put-down, a big put-down. It is used
anti-intellectually (demand: don't consider an alternative!). Among
supporters of governments, I can understand why they use the phrase over
and over negatively and try to fix the phrase negatively in the public's
mind (much like Nazi propaganda's efforts). But I cannot countenance
its use that way among Marxists, knowing that conspiracies are part of
history. See, for only one example, my article with David MacGregor
discussing Marx's understanding of Louis Bonaporte in /The Eighteenth
Brumaire/ -- published in /Socialism and Democracy, /on-line since 2011.
//
Relatedly, I don't understand a call to "drop a subject" seemingly
because different people have different viewpoints, even if very
strongly felt in any direction. If I were in error to address the
concept, so is /Socialism and Democracy./ That journal wants to promote
openness of discourse, not close it down.
I am not accusing you personally of this, of course (I know you too
well), but am reminded of Stalinist suppression.
Paul
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2015 23:56:53 +0000
From: "Perelman, Michael"<[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [Pen-l] Critique of Rebekah Roth's Tea Party novel that
has all 9-11 planes landing in Westover, MA
Paul, I wish we could drop the subject. I suspect that the high-tech visual
effects group would be able to produce and imaginary attack with sufficient
number of actors to display the fictitious horror of the event, we could still
have a war on terror. We live in a world in which a large number of Americans
live in fear of being subject to sharia law. Rationality is very scarce
commodity in our society.
Michael Perelman
--
==== */Research in Political Economy/
<http://www.emeraldinsight.com/books.htm?issn=0161-7230>* (since 1977) |
Editor's *webpage <http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/%7Ezarembka>*
/*Sraffa and Althusser Reconsidered; Neoliberalism Advancing*/ (2014)
/*Contradictions: Finance, Greed, and Labor Unequally Paid*/ (2013)
/*Revitalizing Marxist Theory for Today's Capitalism*/ (2011), with R.Desai
/*The Hidden History of 9-11
<http://catalog.sevenstories.com/products/hidden-history-of-911>*/ (2nd
ed., Seven Stories Press)
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