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Marxist Pursuit

Idly chattering, as bored Marxist academics do, some friends and myself
got into the familiar associational game of trying to place various
familiar quotes from Marx ("wasn't that from the _18th Br_.... no wait,
maybe the _German Ideology_"). I suspect you all know the routine.
Being excessively trained in analytic philosophy I figured that some
need would be served by formalizing such idle chatter... hence the
following proposed board game.

The idea is to steal the rules and the game board of a certain other
popular trivia game, and just provide a set of questions customized to
Marxist academics. Rather than spend my next months (I'm not THAT
bored) developing somewhere a bit over a thousand questions, I figured
maybe the Net (particularly this Marxism list) could help me trivialize
:-). Below is a schematism and example of how the game would look,
which I drew up with just enough off-the-cuff examples to show how it
works. Please email me with more contributions/suggestions. I'm not
closed to suggestions of modifying the categories/rules, or to claims
that my answers are wrong... but my main interest is in soliciting
contributed questions from Net-Marxists. If possible, specify category,
but submit either way.

I figure that if/when I get enough questions, I'll compile them into an
attractive format, and make them freely available. If anyone wants
contributions acknowledged, indicate so, and I'll make some kind of
credits list. Also: *Please distribute this anywhere else that might
solicit reponses*. Feel free to modify the above or below as you see
fit... but keep my email attached so I can get the questions.

Yours, Lulu...

CATEGORIES

Chapter and Verse (CV):
Questions in this category will focus on memorable remarks
made by Marx or by other well known Marxists. The questions
posed will generally require one to identify the source of
quotes which have become almost second nature to Marxists,
and even to other folks. One might be asked to identify the
book or chapter a remark comes from, or possibly the year or
political/historical context it arises from.

Anti-Communism and Anti-Communists (AC):
The foibles and shortcomings of anti-communists worldwide
are often amusing in their child-like naivete, if one can
get past their brutal political implications. Questions
in this category concern famous and not-so-famous
anti-communists, and the things they have said and done.

Arts and Leisure (AL):
Like the similar category in a famous trivia game, this
category concerns the minutae of the cultural productions by
and about Marxists and their fellow travellers. Films,
books, paintings, songs, and other areas of culture provide
the inspiration for this category of questions.

Actually Existing Socialism (AES):
The history, politics and societies of self-identified
Socialist or Communist nations have a rich arcana. Who were
the famous and lesser known figures of the Soviet or Chinese
revolutions (or of others)? In what years did important
events occur? What laws, juridical and economic, governed
the socialist world?

Critiqued by Marx(ists) (CM):
One of the most loved features of Marx (and to a lesser
extent, of other Marxists) is his devastating and
devastangingly witty critiques of other thinkers. What were
some of these critiques? Just who were particular remarks
about? What are some of the cleverests critical turns of
phrase?

The Class Struggle (CS):
The Capitalist (and pre- or non-Capitalist) world has had
quite a number of political conflicts which serve as
inspirations and lessons for Marxists. Who were some of the
great revolutionaries? The notable reactionaries? The
martyrs? The labor unions? The parties? These questions
are culled from the history books of the left.

EXAMPLE:
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| (CV) Everyone is bound to recognize the Marxist catcheism |
| "Philosophers up to now have only interpreted the world, |
| the point, however, is to change it." But just which |
| Thesis on Feuerbach is this remark? |
| |
| (AC) What is the creative first name invented for Vladimir Lenin |
| by the John Birch Society tract, _None Dare Call It |
| Treason_? |
| |
| (AL) In the refrain to his song "Bourgeois Blues", what does |
| folk singer Huddy Leadbetter indicate he's sure gonna do? |
| |
| (AES) Name six of the seven presidents of the Soviet Union. |
| |
| (CM) Which "Saint" of German idealism, critiqued in _The German |
| Ideology_, "goes so far as to assert that 'only criticism |
| and critics have made history'"? |
| |
| (CS) What was the name of the American volunteers who fought on |
| behalf of the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil |
| War? |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| (CV) Thesis XI. |
| |
| |
| (AC) Nicholai. |
| |
| |
| (AL) Spread the News. |
| |
| |
| (AES) Lenin, Stalin, Kruschev, Breshnev, Andropov, Chernenko, |
| Gorbachev. |
| |
| |
| (CM) Bruno Bauer. |
| |
| |
| (CS) The Abraham Lincoln Brigade. |
| |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+


MORE QUESTIONS

--------------------* Chapter and Verse *-------------------------

(CV) In what pamphlet does Marx write (perhaps loosely translated), "Men
make their own histories, but not in conditions of their own
making"?

- The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte.

(CV) In which work does the following piquant summary of historical
materialism occur: "In the social production of their life men enter
into definite relations of production which correspond to a
definite stage of development of their material productive
forces"?

- Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy.

(CV) In what famous chapter of the _Contribution to the Critique of
Political Economy_ does Marx write, "It is not the consciousness of
men that determines their being, but their social being that
determines their consciousness"?

- The Preface

(CV) In which pamphlet do we read the somewhat cryptic, "All that is
solid melts into air, all that is holy is profane"?

- The Manifesto of the Communist Party.


(CV) Marx somewhere writes that "Hegel somewhere remarks that history
repeats itself two times, the first as tragedy, the second as
farse." In what book did Hegel make this remark?

- Hegel nowhere makes this remark.

(CV) Everyone is bound to recognize the Marxist catcheism "Philosophers
up to now have only interpreted the world, the point, however, is
to change it." But just which Thesis on Feuerbach is this remark?

- Thesis XI.

---------------* Anti-Communism and Anti-Communists *-------------

(AC) What is the creative first name invented for Vladimir Lenin by the
John Birch Society tract, _None Dare Call It Treason_?

- Nicholai.

(AC) How many Communists working in the US State Department did Joseph
McCarthy claim to have the names of?

- About 200.

(AC) What US State did Senator Joseph MacCarthy represent?

- Wisconsin.

---------------------* Arts and Leisure *-------------------------

(AL) In the refrain to his song "Bourgeois Blues", what does folk singer
Huddy Leadbetter indicate he's sure gonna do?

- Spread the News.

(AL) In Jean Renoir's inter-war drama "The Crime of Monsieur Lange",
what is the name of the fictional character serialized for the
murdered publisher by Mr. Lange?

- Arizona Jim.

(AL) Who composed the music to the Internationale?

- Pierre Degeyter.

(AL) Who composed the words to the Internationale?

- Euge`ne Pottier.

----------------* Actually Existing Socialism *-------------------

(AES) Name six of the seven presidents of the Soviet Union.

- Lenin, Stalin, Kruschev, Breshnev, Andropov, Chernenko, Gorbachev.

------------------* Critiqued by Marx(ists) *------------------------

(CM) Who, according to Marx, stood philosophy on its head?

- Georg Friedrich Von Hegel.

(CM) Who, alleges Marx, fails to see that religious sentiment is itself
a social product, and that the abstract individual whom he analyzes
belongs, in reality to a particular form of society?

- Ludwig Feuerbach.

(CM) Which "Saint" of German idealism, critiqued in _The German
Ideology_, "goes so far as to assert that 'only criticism and
critics have made history'"?

- Bruno Bauer.

---------------------* The Class Struggle *-----------------------

(CS) What was the name of the American volunteers who fought on behalf
of the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War?

- The Abraham Lincoln Brigade.



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