[PEN-L:1506] Re: Enlightenment insight

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

Alex LoCascio wrote:


>Ummm...but aren't those "lazy assumptions" the cornerstone of Marxism
>itself?  Doesn't historical materialism rest upon Marx  tweaking Hegel's
>notion of "the spirit" estranged from itself?  Wasn't it Marx's
>contention that man is essentially a producer, who under capitalism is
>alienated from the fruits of his own labor, an alienation that can only
>be overcome by revolution?
>
>I mean, I don't want to sound like one of those Marxist purists that you
>loathe so much, but if you don't agree with those "lazy assumptions of a
>timeless human essence from which capitalism estranges us," you might as
>well junk the whole Marxist project.

Not at all. But I think there's a habit among Marxists and other radicals
to imagine revolution as the freeing of something that's been cooped up,
which politically leads to fantasies about The Revolution without thinking
about the processes that get us there.

Doug