[Marxism] Socalled Conspiracy Theory

["Charles Brown" <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Engels wrote a essay "theorizing" that The Book of Revelations in the Bible
was actually a secret code for a revolutionary, conspiratorial assault on
Rome. Was that a non-Marxist approach  to the subject ? No.

How did Marx talk about the prosecution and trial against him ? Did he say
the authorities did everything fair and above board ?

How did Marxists discuss the frame-up of Sacco and Vanzetta ?  As if the
authorities unconsciously stumbled upon a prosecution of them ?

Would Marxists analyze the overthrow of the Allende government without
mentioning the Kissinger "conspiracy"  ?  No.

Where would Fidel Castro be today if Cuban Marxists didn't look for
conspiracies to assassinate him ?  Dead ?

Would Marxists analyze the U.S. Civil Rights movement and Black Power
movement without discussing J. Edgar Hoover and COINTELPRO ?  No.

Give me time and I bring back about 85 more examples of Marxists discussing
conspiracies as part of a political or historical analysis.

The Marxist attitude toward political conspiracies is not that we have a gag
order on ourselves about them, rather that we view capitalism as a system
not a policy, so a particular capitalist plot is not an explanation of  main
historical trends. But on the other hand, _Marx's_ position on "Big men" and
history is that individuals don't determine the direction of history , _but
they can speed up or slow down the process_. One might say the same thing
about a given conspiracy.

 At any rate , it is _not_ the Marxist position that we don't discuss
conspiracies. We'd come off as a bunch of kindergarteners to most adults ,
if we didn't ;or especially if we accepted the monopoly media version of
major current events without question.

Kneejerk, anti- , socalled conspiracy theory is becoming one of the biggest
bourgeois Trojan horses on the U.S. Left.
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