Deus Ex Machina: Burgeoise History.
As a a runner up to a more thorough series of posts about historical materialism and praxis I've come to write the following. As always, I am more indebted to my comrades for the argumentation and idea rather than any talent or inspiration I might have in myself.
One of the many problems that plague the Left, particularly the Swedish Left, is our critique of past regimes - particularly the Soviet Union and revolutionary China. Because they were defeated and because we have been pressed back further and further we have accepted the allegations from the burgeoise papers and their academic cohorts.
Burgeoise critique, however, is completely senseless. Like their history, it is a sort of deus ex machina system of explanation. It usually goes like this: from nowhere comes a figure that suddenly enters the political stage and everything changes. Hitler was evil, thus, Germany became evil. Stalin was a mass murderer, thus the Soviet Union was the work of Stalin. A few variations exist on this theme, one of them being the culturalist explanation (Huntington, imperialists, colonialists and other racists) and another being a sort of leftist liberal 1984 style paranoia and fear scenario that, though it may explain bits and pieces of things, misses the larger picture.
Rather than just being plain wrong, we must realize something else as well. Each assault on our history from the burgeoise is not an attack on right or wrong - the upper classes couldn't care less - but against us, against the working class. To back away is not going to cause them to cease, not at all, they will continue and continue - each time with more absurd allegations - until they have neutralized us entirely. The debate on Lenin, the Soviet Union, the Left Party and Communism in Sweden is a prime example. It cannot be won by backing off.
Critique is at the heart of Marxism, as is the understanding that material interests are the stuff that make up the central conflicts of society and from which our understanding of ourselves and our relations come from. We must devote our time to a critique the left. The Trotskyites have devoted the most time to their critique of the Soviet Union and in particular, Ernest Mandel have produced some excellent and eye-opening thesis on what actually happened during the time of the Soviet Thermidor and the decline of the socialist state. Read it.
One of the many problems that plague the Left, particularly the Swedish Left, is our critique of past regimes - particularly the Soviet Union and revolutionary China. Because they were defeated and because we have been pressed back further and further we have accepted the allegations from the burgeoise papers and their academic cohorts.
Burgeoise critique, however, is completely senseless. Like their history, it is a sort of deus ex machina system of explanation. It usually goes like this: from nowhere comes a figure that suddenly enters the political stage and everything changes. Hitler was evil, thus, Germany became evil. Stalin was a mass murderer, thus the Soviet Union was the work of Stalin. A few variations exist on this theme, one of them being the culturalist explanation (Huntington, imperialists, colonialists and other racists) and another being a sort of leftist liberal 1984 style paranoia and fear scenario that, though it may explain bits and pieces of things, misses the larger picture.
Rather than just being plain wrong, we must realize something else as well. Each assault on our history from the burgeoise is not an attack on right or wrong - the upper classes couldn't care less - but against us, against the working class. To back away is not going to cause them to cease, not at all, they will continue and continue - each time with more absurd allegations - until they have neutralized us entirely. The debate on Lenin, the Soviet Union, the Left Party and Communism in Sweden is a prime example. It cannot be won by backing off.
Critique is at the heart of Marxism, as is the understanding that material interests are the stuff that make up the central conflicts of society and from which our understanding of ourselves and our relations come from. We must devote our time to a critique the left. The Trotskyites have devoted the most time to their critique of the Soviet Union and in particular, Ernest Mandel have produced some excellent and eye-opening thesis on what actually happened during the time of the Soviet Thermidor and the decline of the socialist state. Read it.
Labels: Ernest Mandel, History, Ideology, the Onion historical materialism, the Soviet Union, Trotskyism
posted by Björn at 3:33 PM
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