[Marxism] Marx as Left of the Marxists

["Jurriaan Bendien" <bendien@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tony makes some very useful points about the Marxists:

(1) marxists stifle dissent and discussion.
(2) despite the intellectual validity of the theory, the marxist movement
gives little reason to stick around
(3) opening one's mouth in marxist circles usually invites, rudeness,
insults, rejection, and expulsion.
(4) It's not clear what to do: "Shouldn't you be at the plant gate selling
newspapers?"
(5) a marxist might not enjoy the best of life styles and live austerely.
(6) A Stakhanovist workerist mentality pushes wannabe commies and liberal
minded thinkers away.
(7) a negativistic mindset marxism as kind of a antithesis to "the power of
positive thinking".
(8) marxism is a "hobby", that can be kind of expensive.
(9) many marxists are border-line alkies.
(10) nobody likes a chronic loser.
(11) marxism seems so brackish and stagnant

I think these are often valid criticisms, that is also my experience, but
they apply to people adopting all sorts of ideologies and political styles
or religions, it is not specific to Marxism. But I think the problems go
much deeper than that (I may write a book on that some time, in terms of the
historical experience of it). They include, very briefly, the following:

(1) the transformation of Marx's ideas into a "system" and an ideology (or
even a cosmology) which claims to have answers to everything in advance of
practical experience and in advance of systematic inquiry, an approach Marx
explicitly rejected, and which prevents independent thinking. It creates a
literature which attracts all the wrong people.

(2) An ill-considered anti-capitalist stance which does not generate
constructive alternatives and doesn't generate a positive theory of
socialism in terms of forms of association and workable social institutions.

(3) Inability to understand what Marx really meant and how to develop his
ideas further through research, theorizing and practical experience, thereby
transforming his thought into a moralistic religion and culture worse than
christianity.

(4) A bad understanding of the human psyche and human psychology, as part of
an inability to integrate (1) the findings of modern science about human
development, sexual development and spiritual development, linguistics,
ecology etc. (2) the insights of other socialist and leftwing tendencies and
movements.

(5) As a result of those four trends, Marxism remains trapped in an
epistemic dilemma of either mechanical materialism or idealism, and
consequently cannot escape from the dualisms in the ideologies of
competitive, class-divided societies and oscillations between sectarianism
and opportunism.

(6) The inability to formulate and implement a positive ethics which
identifies forms of association between people which are desirable, and a
misunderstanding of religious belief, resulting in an inferior humanism
which departs from the high road of human thought.

Consequently, though reading the material, I personally rejected Marxism
long ago, although people still sometimes falsely label me as that, and I
subsequently rejected contacts with all but a few Marxists who are creative,
independent thinkers capable of good human relations. But this does not mean
at all, that I do not think Marx's thought is valuable. I think it is very
valuable, indispensable even.

As far as I am concerned though, there is only socialism or communism,
Marxism does not exist. Socialism and communism are about the achievement of
a just, egalitarian, ecologically sustainable and free society which
abolishes social classes and exploitative forms of association. The thought
of one man is completely insufficient for that purpose, it requires the
contribution of millions, even billions of living individuals.

Personally, I am a socialist at present (and a member of the Dutch Socialist
Party), and I think you can be vastly more effective that way than as a
Marxist, thinking freely and really change the world, insofar as that is
within the power of an individual to do, in association with others. I
discussed this topic briefly with party leader Jan Marijnissen once on an
anti-war demonstration, and he opined basically "this Marxist language and
culture is politically confusing". This does not mean at all that he doesn't
hold Marx in high regard, he does, but rather that there is a big difference
between little Marxist groupuscles squabbling with each other for lack of
other people to talk to, and being the leader of a socialist political party
of over 40,000 people based on the real experience of the Dutch working
classes, with a real effect on the political life of a country.

Jurriaan




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