RE: [Marxism] Insightful interview with Patrick Cockburn

["M. Junaid Alam" <mjunaidalam@xxxxxxxxxx>]

"

What Rachel said was that she is "slightly closer" to a western
capitalist idea of "modernity and what life worth living" than to those
who seek value "somewhere in a next world," it's pretty clear that she
means secularism.  The statement simply doesn't entail any "affinity for
barbarous Imperialist 'modernity'" or "neutrality" in the global class
conflict."

I think an honest and serious consideration of the framework and assumptions 
involved
in making this statement reveals more than what appears at first glance.


A materialist conception of life and society is far healthier for any people
than one heavily dependent on the role of afterlife. No doubt. But things are
not that simple here. If we are talking about capitalists, as we are, we have
to understand their view is materialist not just philosophically but morally -
materialist as in making profits to get rich.

These profits are not accrued by magic. Iraqis get killed and tortured and 
destroyed
so that these profits can be defended, increased, and so opportunity for more 
profits
can be expanded.

So, the real dichotomy is between those who make life worth living for 
themselves
by denying others the right to life, and those who, deprived of the right to 
meaningful
life, must resort to the heavens for inspiration.

But this is secondary: The dichotomy itself is false. In reality, the choice is
not between imperialism on the one hand and fundamentalism on the other.
The choice is between imperialism and the fundamentalism it
produces on the one hand, and an anti-systemic movement on the other.

In a word, the choice is between socialism and barbarism.

Barbarism encompasses and includes imperialist crimes and the crimes of proxies
employed by imperialism that have now turned against it, proxies that,
in our case, have even become a refracted expression of
anti-imperialist sentiment. Barbarism in mainstream discourse is
just a codeword for violence committed by Islamists - "terrorism."
It is dangerous to get ensnared in the enemy's own cage of codewords.








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