RE: [Marxism] Norman Geras toast of the neocons

["www.leninology. blogspot.com" <leninology@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Ooops!
>
>
> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1472386,00.html

Knowing him, he wouldn't be the least bit bothered.  He is a liberal with
some marxist gimmicks these days, and for my money his present position owes
a great deal to two aspects of his previous work: 1) the insistence on the
'human nature' fetish in Marx & Human Nature (a rather turgid and dull
affair), 2) the 'moral lessons' built on his conception of human nature in
The Contract of Mutual Indifference.  The latter is an interesting book in
its way, but it announces Geras' belief that there merely 'are' aspects of
human nature which drive people to behave in ways that must be restrained by
a liberal polity.  There's a curiously significant argument about the nature
of the Nazi holocaust involved - did it begin, as Browning suggests, when
the Nazis were doing well in Operation Barbarossa, or did it, as others
suggest, begin in its failure?  If the former, it is inferred, then there is
no evident explanation for it available to historical materialism.  If the
latter, supposedly, then it can be understood as part of the Nazi regime's
radicalisation during its collapse, and it is therefore susceptible to a
historical materialist analysis.

At any rate, the point is that since 'evil' exists in the world (according
to Geras) then it must be restrained by liberal imperialism, one that builds
schools and defends womens' rights etc.

The Euston Manifesto, with its collection of nebulous 'principles', laudable
but vague ambitions and outright slanders, crystallises the turn to
liberalism.  The celebration of America as the chief vector of democracy in
the world, in particular, stands out as the negation of aspirations toward
direct democracy, and the acceptance of liberal democracy as the sina qua
non of human political achievement.

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