CeJ jannuzi --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I believe the most fruitful lines of thought are centered on Lenin. Tthat was, in part, his genius of adding the concept of imperialism to Marxist thought; clearly WW I and its aftermath were real crises. It's his conception of imperialism and his analysis of finance capitalism that make him one of the first post-modern Marxists (especially if you can accept the thesis, advanced by Althusser and others, that Marx is foundational to structuralism in social scientific thought). This leads to all sorts of flows and eddies in Marxist thinking but perhaps the most important thinkers in this would be Deleuze and Guattari, who as co-authors become something like a single entity, like Marx-Engels. Unfortunately, they are both dead now. It would have been wonderful to see them discuss the current crisis. http://www.generation-online.org/p/fpdeleuze7.htm CJ ^^^^^^ CB: On Marxism as structuralism, below is my first substantive post to an email list , almost exactly ten years ago, Marxism-Thaxis 1998. It is a structural marxist thought. ^^^^^^ http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism-thaxis/1998-March/007351.html M-TH: A vulgar marxist here Charles Brown charlesb at CNCL.ci.detroit.mi.us Tue Mar 17 14:27:56 MST 1998 Previous message: M-TH: This is a test. I'm trouble getting the right address Next message: M-TH: Re: M-I: Re: Marxism and the Indians of Peru, part 2 of 3 Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By vulgar marxism I mean a constructive critic of fancy marxism and its left-liberal cousins. My general attitude is to extract the rational kernel from the modern and post-modern left neo and paleo liberals from Hegel to post-Foucaultists. So, I like the kernel of truth metaphor used in the list discussion in the last day. As to the true universal Doug asked Yoshie for, I would build it. not on a new idea, but Marx and Feuerbach's species-being. All of the workers and other people represented by other social movements are human species-beings. Although biiology only limits us human beings because we have culture (super-natures and natures ) this contradiction between biology and culture is still where it is at in generating universals or big generalizations. Being determines consciousness is still a focal rule of thumb (guide to action) for building a universal, real common interests among huge numbers of people, the masses. My first post-Marx development of species-being is to derive women's liberation organically from historical materialism's premises, as Marx and Engels derive workers' liberation from those species-being historical premises. It is a correction of classical Marxism, but based on Marxism's own premises. In ways its too vulgar for pomos and fancy marxists. However, the pomos and their old cousins, Frankfurt school, Gramsci, existentialists, et al. all the fancy marxists have taught us something: being determines consciousness discontinuously, intermittently, rarely. Through most of the actual time of history, consciousness and being are reciprocally determining. Only rarely, in revolutions, primarily and ultimately does being utterly determine consciousness. Today, that means that the direct naked appeal to the working class' class self-interest is inadequate in itself-necessary but not sufficient in the formal logical sense -to inspire revolution. That appeal cannot be dropped - the vast majority are working class, wage laborers - but must be complemented with appeals to other consciousness, other consciousness determined by being (gender, for example) and consciousness that is determined more by consciousness. Overall one wants to change the world based on interpreting it, changing it through practical-critical activity, a unity of theory and practice still. All Power to the People as a whole. Charles Brown, your new comrade _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [email protected] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
