Re: [Marxism] Theocracy

[Greg McDonald <sabocat59@xxxxxxx>]

HB: Given such examples, I suspect the term "incubator" has to be  
limited
to a legitimation for change and not imply any force for change that
lies beyond consciousness. You can imagine an alternative, but getting
there is something else, and it is the latter that seems of primary
importance.

I guess I'm simply assuming a materialist perspective here. Of course  
I'm thinking about institutional forces at work, and not some  
supernatural hand of god working through the hearts and minds of  
humans. Which brings me to my next point.

HB: Religion has little to offer beyond a moral critique of the
status quo. I'm not so jaundiced as to deny that such a critique
cannot upon occasion lead to positive action, such as in your example,
but I wouldn't attribute to religion much more than a critique of the
existing order and perhaps some values that might give direction to
change. The belief that if more people were good Christians, it would
be a better world, rings hollow, for they are not good Christians for
real reasons. The point I tried to make about "opiate of the people"
was that religion does not significantly engage objective social
forces and it therefore does better at offering a critique than
facilitate a needed change.

i would disagree with this on historical materialist grounds. Let us  
take the example of the social gospel. An idea from Rauschenbusch   
and Sheldon leads directly to the formation of the Highlander school  
by Miles Horton. (Idea becomes institutionalized). The Highlander  
School has a direct organizational influence on the civil rights  
movement, and MLK  not only attends the school, but is also heavily  
influenced by the ideas of Rauschenbusch. The rest, as they say, is  
history. So more than just a personalistic, individualist appeal to  
moral sensibility, religion has had a direct institutional and  
materialist impact in terms of moving people to take action on a  
collective level.

And even though I would never link up with say, the Buddhist version  
of the same idea (which does exist), the Buddhist peace collectives  
are moving and shaking at the grassroots level and are involved in  
protests against the war. (BTW, the most profound negative  
dialectician was Nagarjuna. He makes most western philosophers read  
like a comic book by comparison.)

Greg

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