Charles,
Frankly, I see the "withering away of the state" as
a millennial vision, like the second coming in Christianity.
When John the Baptist met Yeshua bin Miriam he
declared that he was the messiah and the "end is near."
At various points over the last 2000 years, various folks
have declared the same thing only to find out it was not so.
When the Communist Manifesto was written, Marx and
Engels (accurately) saw an imminent revolutionary uprising.
It did not work out as they had hoped/expected, indeed, in
France ended as the "farce" of Napoleon III after the "tragedy"
of Napoleon I. Clearly when Marx wrote of the arrival of
communism and the "withering away of the state" he was
not expecting its imminent arrival. But such hopes have
certainly fired subsequent generations of revolutionaries.
I am not saying that they should not do so today either, although
the current political climate is distinctly reactionary, as near as
I can tell.
Barkley Rosser
-----Original Message-----
From: Charles Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Thursday, May 18, 2000 10:31 PM
Subject: [PEN-L:19260] Marx and Malleability (fwd)
>
>
>
>>>> "J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 05/18/00 01:33PM >>>
>The utopianism came
>in when he actually discussed what socialism would
>be, or more precisely communism, e.g. the withering
>away of the state and "from each according to his
>ability to each according to his needs;" all very nice,
>but also very utopian, especially the bit about the
>withering away of the state. What a pathetic joke.
>
>________
>
>CB: Barkley, I know you are from an era of instant gratification , and you
want to LIVE through the world revolution, but history is not a just so
story. The transition to socialism, communism and the whithering away of the
state is an epochal, i.e. indefinitely multiple generational process. Even
Engels and Marx did not see it, even much of it.
>
>On the other hand, first time tragedy , second time farce, this whithering
away.
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>
>
