R48G: some suggestions for a new post-marxist communist platform…
August 3rd, 2017 •
We have suggested here many times the need for marxist groups to create an upgrade of the canon and to create a kind of break with the legacy that will send a message that the left is not beholden to an older era of marxism/leninism defended ad nauseam from stalinism,
thus forcing the issue of a dogmatic and defensive posture. This is a hard sell on the left but a sense that an audience can expand via renewal just might be ready for prime time…We can also use our perspectives here to create an umbrella group that can ally with older formations but we need to make the point that something that at least sounds new is needed to break the cycle of mechanized thought…
Some of the issues here:
focus on the era of 1848 and the heroic era of Marx/Engels and in principle on the birth of communism before the onset of marxism: the marxist monopoly on communism has alienated far too many
be wary of the classical economic theories in Marx and deal with neo-classical economics and its critique
try to deal with the economic calculation debate and its propaganda which has terminated believability in marxism for so many brainwashed by market hype…
be mindful of the plight of complex theory in the later Marx, and its vicissitudes…
stop being mesmerized by Capital whose theories are marginal at this point, the basic overall effect as impressionistic being more effective: Marx was unable to complete his project, in part because his theories are so complex and conjectural…
be mindful of the complexity in Marx: few an understand what he is saying and very powerful critics have an immense literature of attack that most marxists have never read
be wary of theories of history with causal generalizations:
historical materialism fails strictly speaking as a ‘theory’. It what is meant were simply stated as descriptive history it might fare better
‘stages of production theory’ in relation to ‘historical materialism’ is a misreading of history: the epochs or stages indicated don’t really work as theory
that theory is crypto-teleological without showing the basis for such
capitalism is not a stage of history and claiming it is has served to strengthen its grip as a fictitious era that self-justifies its own faults and claims its need to realize all its potential
the failure of dialectic and the pseudo-science of ‘dialectic materialism’
the false embrace of darwinism (despite Marx’s early warning) and failure to correctly expose social darwinist ideology
the biased emphasis on materialism versus idealism, a useless debate…
etc…
There are some simple remedies for all of this and we have suggested many new approaches…
Darwiniana 