On Aug 22, 2009, at 8:34 PM, Louis Proyect wrote: > Jim Farmelant wrote: > >> Perhaps, either you or Lou can do us the favor of explaining >> what you mean by "scientism." Whenever, I hear people >> using that term (without explaining what they mean by it), >> I am tempted to reach for my revolver, which is quite >> inconvenient for me since I don't own one. And while your >> at it, perhaps you can explain what's so bad about being a >> "futurist." >> > > This is the sort of thing I had in mind. Trotsky's remarks on the > Dnieper Dam are cited in Trotsky's bio: > > "In the south the Dnieper runs its course through the wealthiest > industrial lands; and it is wasting the prodigious weight of its > pressure, playing over age-old rapids and waiting until we harness its > stream, curb it with dams, and compel it to give lights to cities, to > drive factories, and to enrich ploughland. We shall compel it!" > > The Dnieper Dam, like the 3 Gorges Dam, might have produced > electricity > but an enormous costs. As I said earlier, Bukharin had a much better > understanding of the relationship between society and nature...
Lenin spoke of the prerequisites for socialism in Russia as "Soviet power plus electrification of the whole country." How would Proyect have electrified Russia in the 1920's without building dams? Dnieperstroy typifies the issues in the struggle between the Opposition and Stalin. It was Stalin who put it best: "Russia has no more need for Dnieperstroy than a muzhik needs a gramophone." For Lenin and Trotsky, who realized that the socialist political revolution could not survive in backward Russia without a socialist cultural revolution, no task was more important to the soviet republic than to ensure that *the muzhik has a gramophone.* And for the muzhik to have a gramophone Dnieperstroy was essential. Shane Mage > This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it > always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire, > kindling in measures and going out in measures." > > Herakleitos of Ephesos ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
