Being allergic to dogma does not mean that those who own the means of
production (controlling interest, not a few shares) are not capitalists,
It does not mean that those who do not own means of production and
therefore must work for wages do not create the capitalists' profits
because they are paid not the value of what they produce but only what
is socially necessary to bring them back to work for the rest of their
working lives and provide successors to continue that process. All that
being allergic to dogma means is that seizing the means of production
from their owners does not resolve the social evils that capitalism
creates.
William Mandel
www.BillMandel.net
Jvaron@aol.com wrote:
>
> Dear Ron,
>
> I am about as rad as they come and, like you, a student/scholar of the
> mostmilitant wing of the New Left. Yes, the murder in Genoa is horrble, and
> reveals the ugliest face of what is in many ways a brutal world economic
> system.
>
> But I must say: I would have thought your studies of Weatherman would have
> convinced you that complex analysis is more helpful than macho,
> anti-imperialist sloganeering. The world, alas, has grown vastly more
> complicated than your cookie-cutter radicalism acknowledges. Ever heard of
> nuance? Mediation? um, Marcuse, who wisely noted that the dichotomy of the
> super-rich and super-poor no longer describes "advanced" forms of capitalism,
> and that any genuinely radical movement would have to start from premises
> other than those of a crude and antedated Marxism?
>
> Yes, Capitalism kills. But what does it mean to even say that?!! Communism,
> socialism, fascism, and likely most other isms by which states have been
> organized kill too, if we look to Hungary in 56, Prague in 1968, Hitler for
> his dreadful tenure, and so on.
>
> And who is a "capitalist" anyhow? Any businessperson who generates, um,
> capital? What about folks invested in the stock market? Are you aware that
> labor unions are the biggest institutional investors in the Stock Market thru
> pension fund portfolios? And what about the tens of millions of Americans,
> many of modest means, somehow in the market? Are they all "killers" too?
>
> And do you REALLY THINK that "global capitalism" is somehow the exclusive
> cause of poverty and disease wordwide?
>
> Look, I've marched, sang, demonstrated, written, petitioned, been locked up,
> indicted, abused on behalf of the cause. Solidarity and all the rest. But
> please, don't use righteousness to mask a lack of intellectual curiosity
> about the world we live in (not the virtual world of ultra-left reduction),
> or even your own analytical limitations. One of those former Weatherfolk,
> whom I've interviewed, confessed that he is now "allergic to dogma." We
> should all develop such allergies, and save our precious health for an honest
> and intelligent fight.
>
> peace,
>
> Jeremy
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Aug 08 2001 - 18:49:36 EDT