[Marxism] Left Anti-intellectualism and Its Discontents

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm sure Louis will have a good answer to this piece.  He knows these
characters inside and out.

I consider it basically an attack on the left wing of the antiwar
movement, those BAD activists who say "out Now" and support resistance
to the imperialists in Iraq.  It's really, in my opinion, about the
"complexities" and "many factors" and "deeper thinking" that should keep
us from doing things like supporting candidates against the Republicans
and Democrats, calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal from
Iraq, and supporting the struggle of the Iraqi people against the
occupation.

Its about the many levels of questions we must examine, bringing the
insights  of
Wittgenstein and Wittfogel and the Arcades of Benjamin into their proper
place in the problematique of the discussion, so that we can drop the
demand for unconditional self-determination for Iraq and start fighting
Joanne Landy-style to demand that Iraq become a nice 100 percent secular
"democracy."  (If "we" leave, don't you dare betray "our" good faith by
bringing Baathists or Islamists into the government! No "turbans," now,
this is a democracy! And please don't forget to have that civil war with
the Islamists and Baathists after "we" go so "we" can sigh with
disappointment about the hopeless problems of the "failed" Third World
states! No cutting deals with the Bad Guys!)

Anyway that's my read.  I also think that the statement that
"Activistism is also intimately related to the decline of Marxism," is
one of the most shallow and uninformative comments on that phenomenon I
have seen.  Did "activistism" contribute in any way to the collapse of
the Soviet bloc? Is "activistism" the reason why the Communist parties
of Iraq are so out-to-lunch on the struggle against imperialism?

But the article is also a dangerous one in another sense.  It can be
particularly misleading because it can inspire a natural reaction of
putting a minus wherever these "intellectuals"  put a plus and vice
versa.

The fact is we do need teach-ins about Iraq.  That is a big way in which
gut negative feelings against the Vietnam war were turned into confident
demands for immediate withdrawal and solidarity with the Vietnamese
people.  More knowledge will mean more  power for our side.  And there
are other ways in which more discussion, more educational work, and more
exchanges of views can create more informed and more powerful struggle.

So I think the article is completely misleading and misdirecting.

Fred


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