On Fri, Aug 28, 2026 at 12:03 PM, Charles wrote: > > The point of historical materialism, on which you quote Marx, is not to be > an understanding spectator of what happens (like you) but rather to be > better at changing what happens.
I agree with that sentiment, Charles, but how would you know whether I'm only an "understanding spectator"? Admittedly without the same energy or passion at age 84 that I once had, I participate in the local Palestine solidarity movement and meet in a smaller circle with younger radicals and older veterans attracted to Marxism to pass on whatever lessons I've learned about organizing over six decades. You spend at least as much time on marxmail as I do. What practical activity are you engaged in where I fall short? I've met too many students and intellectuals who derived their Marxism purely from reading the classical texts without having had any meaningful contact with workers in their unions, union-backed mass parties, or various reform movements. At the risk of making the same error of misjudgment about you as you have about me, I have no other way of understanding why you substitute revolutionary Marxist jargon for considered analysis of where the class is at today, as if there has been no change in the scale and level of class militancy and political consciousness since the great upheavals of the last century. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#43205): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/43205 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/120952698/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
