I am following this topic with great interest Chris and others. I am responding 'off the top of my head' and do want to contribute.
Marx's biggest lament was what capitalist relations of production and consumption did to people; alienating them from, not only the products they produced but also, as an extension, from themselves. Definate links to ZMM here. The atrocities committed in the name of Marxism cannot and will not be forgotten but they were committed by people who claimed to have read Marx, understood probably only 10% of what the man was arguing and filled the rest in themselves to satify their own horrible ideas about the way things should be. It was mindless "capitalist kicking" as under McCarthy the "communist kicking' in the '50's. I mean, come on... what atrocities have not been committed in the name of Jesus and God. Are you holding them responsible for what others have done with their intentions?? Will you not read about their insights because of that? Churchianity is still apologising for these and I hope they will continue to do so into eternity. Shane shame shame!!! Marx was a philosopher and deeply concerned about what this new economic development was doing to the 'human condition'. He analysed the workings, in his own life time of very crude capitalism, exposed huge atrocities inflicted upon the workers, publicised these , argued about these. Because of this he was kicked out of 5 countries because the powers that were ( and coming to be) didn't like what he said. There is still this cloud over the value of Karl Marx's contribution to intellectual patterns of value...screaming "See what socialism has done?" "See what communism has done?" Marx said ,15 years before his death that he was not a Marxist. He has said very little on socialism and nothing on communism because he did not know these states. He did not know what they would look like. He suggested tha England and America would be the first countries to adopt socialist principles because of their advanced economic and technological developments. I think that what he was hinting at here was that these 2 countries were the first to have the capability and know-how to feed, clothe and protect their entire societies ( a bit like Maslow's hierarchy) so they could go on to better (qualitatively) persuits.Alas it was not to be. He was a *good* man. We can still learn from him. Andre Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
