Re: [Pen-l] democracy

[Ted Winslow <egwinslow@xxxxxxxxxx>]

 Charles Brown wrote:

> Preliminarlily, I'd
> say that a scientific and atheistic
> worldview, and substantially suppression
> of the Russian Orthodox church would
> significantly move the Russian masses
> along the path to achieving this
> standard. However, I'd also note
> that though the US has for a over
> two hundred years had a democracy
> and capitalist relations of production,
> it is not at all clear that most
> of its population would meet this
> Kantian standard.

The whole point, repeated by Marx, is that the "despotism" is "caused"  
by the "superstition" and "prejudice".  Given that to be "enlightened"  
is "to think for oneself", it can't be developed by despotic means.

Once individuals become "enlightened", "despotism" becomes impossible.

The idea that the "superstition" and "prejudice" of peasants was  
"responsible" for Stalinist "despotism", in the sense Marx claimed  
they were "responsible" for, the "cause" of, "the Bonaparte dynasty"  
in 19th century France, is consistent with the claim made by Kara- 
Murza in the passage from Soviet Civilization: From 1917 to the Great  
Victory translated by Chris Doss and posted to LBO.  Even in the  
passage quoted by Doss, the claim was supported with historical  
evidence.

> A very important feature of the "Stalinist repressions" consists in  
> that the actions of the government were met with mass support, which  
> it would have been impossible to either organize or imitate. It  
> would also have been impossible to carry out such repressions if the  
> personnel of the enforcement agencies and the victims themselves had  
> not accepted them as legitimate (although each victim likely  
> considered his particular case to be a mistake). This is obvious not  
> only because there were hardly no attempts made by people to protect  
> themselves from repressions, even by those who had the means. In the  
> repressions against the high military command death sentences were  
> given to victims by their colleagues, who at the next stage would  
> become victims themselves.
>
> When we talk about the repressions, we avoid looking at one obvious,  
> but unpleasant, fact. The repressions of 1937-38 to a great extent  
> were created not by state totalitarianism, but by a profound  
> _democracy_. But not a democracy of civil society of rational  
> individuals, but the archaic one of the peasant commune. This is an  
> enormous dark force, and when it is allowed to carry out its will,  
> innocent heads roll. For it is easy for the peasant commune to  
> believe in plots and the secret power of aliens, of "enemies of the  
> people." When such hatred, possessing the power of an epidemic,  
> rules the peasant commune, every witch will burn. And the Russian  
> peasant commune is not crueler in this, than, for example, that of  
> Western Europe -- it simply occured there earlier than it did among  
> us.
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2006/2006-October/020858.html

That much "individuality" is the US is still characterized by  
significant "superstition" and "prejudice" indicates that Marx was  
mistaken about the ability of the capitalist labour process to develop  
the degree of "integral development of every individual producer",  
i.e. of "enlightenment", that would "emancipate" individuals from  
"superstition" and "prejudice".

Without such development, "socialism" in his sense remains  
impracticable.

Ted

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