I think I understand Jurriaan's point of view here. Some people who believe that under capitalism that there is an irreversible tendency for the rate of profit (and argue for their point of view using theology-style logic) have somehow succeeded in defining themselves as representing "orthodox Marxism." If the falling rate of profit folks have claimed the orthodoxy, then it must be _all of_ Marxist political economics which uses theological argumentation and should be rejected (as being expedient, etc.)
But this is silly, since 100 years ago, disproportionality was the "orthodoxy." In other eras, under-consumption theory was the "orthodoxy." But there is no orthodoxy (except in method, I'd say, following Georg Lukacs). And just because something is called "orthodox" doesn't mean that it's accurate (or, for that matter, wrong). As with Rosa Luxemburg's personal motto, we should "doubt all." We can learn a heck of a lot from Marx and his followers, but that doesn't mean that we stop thinking. (The same applies to any other thinker.) On Fri, Jul 5, 2013 at 12:05 PM, Jurriaan Bendien <[email protected]> wrote: > What I am trying to say here is that people have this theory, but they don’t > really know anymore what the question is that the theory is supposed to > answer, it is more or less a theory in search of a question to which it is > an answer. It is sort of like, if Marxism is the answer, what is the > question? I’ve read a lot of literature on crisis theory, but most of the > time it is not really clear what the point of it is. > > > > It is certainly true that capitalism develops through booms and slumps, but > it is difficult to prove this is a cyclical process, since within ten years > or 25 years a lot of qualitative changes occur. It is also difficult to > prove that the causes of the ups and downs must always be the same, or more > or less the same. > > > > J. > > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > -- Jim Devine / "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." -- Philip K. Dick _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
