shirtless helots & neo-asceticism

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Doug:
>Ernest Mandel, for one, who wrote the passage appended below. I'm
>also curious what you make of these comments by your "muses."
>Mariategui, writing scornfully of those who "dreamed of nobly leading
>a revolution of the shirtless helots," added:

I am not sure what this business about leading a revolution of shirtless
helots is about. I spent 5 years building an organization that sent
computer programmers, engineers and other technicians to work in Nicaragua,
Namibia, etc. We always insisted that volunteers wear shirts. Sandals were
also okay.

>And one of your other muses, Gramsci, wrote of the "progressive"
>aspects of "Americanism and Fordism," saying they were "links of the
>chain marking the passage from the old economic individualism to the
>planned economy."

Okay, I'll answer you about Gramsci over on thaxis. Two things, however.
Don't tell Burford I'm coming over there. (I lied about being 6 foot tall,
although I am heavily muscled.) The other thing is that Gramsci had a hard
time spelling out his ideas on the need to break with capitalism, since he
was in a fascist prison. Reformists tend to highlight the "cultural
studies" aspect of his thought, but I think the most useful part of Prison
Notebooks has to do with the question of hegemony. In any case, his
interest in Fordism mostly revolved around how workers were controlled by
an extensive system involving social workers, psychology,  inside and
outside the plant, etc. In any case, there's very little excitement about
conveyor belts per se in Gramsci. Perhaps you are thinking of the Austrian
Stalinist Margsci who did write some awful poems about tractor factories.

>And now here's Mandel, who faced arrest and torture under the Nazis,
>as I recall, though he was Belgian, and may therefore lack the moral
>standing to speak on this issue.

>>Marx himself deliberately pointed out the need to work out a system
>>of needs, which has nothing to do with the neo-asceticism peddled in
>>some circles as Marxist orthodoxy.

Ascetism? How dare you! I am broiling a sirloin steak for dinner, courtesy
of a Vinegar Factory gift certificate from Michael and Karen Yates. Yummy!!!

Louis Proyect
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