Marxist errors...
Karl got it wrong- his theory of history, the withering away of the state, the condemnation of spirituality, the failure to foresee how the Iron Law of Oligarchy would strangle the revolution, how the scientific propaganda machine would subvert us, the sometime positive imput of management, the necessity of some degree of profit motive, his advocacy of a too strong central government and bank obsessed with industrial production, his neglect of the importance of nationalism over classism, his flawed theory of consciousness, etc......
To be fair, Marx wrote over twenty books during a 40 year period, dealing with a wide range of subjects. His thought as an analytic tool is still useful in many areas- cultural and socio-economic. His basic premise concerning the antagonism between labor and capital, the workers and the bosses, remains true...But the legacy remains- a noble ideal and somewhat faulty ideas, led by mainly by ignoble men.
The Soviets destroyed most of their vast tundra ...life expectancy for men living near Archangel is about 50 years... millions were needlessly exiled to the Gulag.
But the West put great pressure upon the fledgling workers state, and helped turn it into the lumbering morass it became( the US invaded Russia in 1919).
The Soviet achievement in Space is astounding- a country devastated by two world wars accomplished much... first satellite in space, first man in space, the record for longest duration of a man in space...the Russians landed probes on other planets, and almost beat the US to the Moon.....If the 1991 collapse never occurred, the Russians had planned a manned flight to Mars by the year 2000......For these reasons, the lone director of these efforts, Sergei Korolev, is one of my heroes.
The transformation of land, labor, and money into commodities subject to autonomous market mechanisms (after about 1500) was alien and inhuman compared to what preceded it- the peasantry of Europe held most fields in common, patterned after the monasteries, whose economic structure was modelled after the communist sect called 'Christians.' (The main center of early Christianity,The Jerusalem Church, held everything in common, until the destruction of the temple in 70 AD.) In the Bible, chapter of Acts, communism is preached as being the economic order commanded by the Lord.
The Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock initially wanted a communist system....
One of The Archbishops of Canterbury -William Temple (1942?) was a Marxist.
" Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the greater consideration."
President Abe Lincohn, first Congressional address, Dec.3 1861
Marxism is mainly incorrect due to its severe economic determinism and materialism. Marxists believed everything was environmental- change the outward economic modes, then a 'New Man' would emerge.....This view ignores the imput of autonomous, crucial, non-material factors and interventions- religious inspiration (the Protestant Ethic), biology and genetics, art, etc.
The economic base was falsely thought to ALWAYS determine the 'ideology'....but history disproves this...
Lenin's introduction of the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1922-1923 is viewed by many as being as the burial of orthodox Marxism.
The trade union labor movement blunted the appeal of Marxist socialism, mainly by satisfying the workers with concessions, diluting revolutionary fervor.
To be fair, Marx wrote over twenty books during a 40 year period, dealing with a wide range of subjects. His thought as an analytic tool is still useful in many areas- cultural and socio-economic. His basic premise concerning the antagonism between labor and capital, the workers and the bosses, remains true...But the legacy remains- a noble ideal and somewhat faulty ideas, led by mainly by ignoble men.
The Soviets destroyed most of their vast tundra ...life expectancy for men living near Archangel is about 50 years... millions were needlessly exiled to the Gulag.
But the West put great pressure upon the fledgling workers state, and helped turn it into the lumbering morass it became( the US invaded Russia in 1919).
The Soviet achievement in Space is astounding- a country devastated by two world wars accomplished much... first satellite in space, first man in space, the record for longest duration of a man in space...the Russians landed probes on other planets, and almost beat the US to the Moon.....If the 1991 collapse never occurred, the Russians had planned a manned flight to Mars by the year 2000......For these reasons, the lone director of these efforts, Sergei Korolev, is one of my heroes.
The transformation of land, labor, and money into commodities subject to autonomous market mechanisms (after about 1500) was alien and inhuman compared to what preceded it- the peasantry of Europe held most fields in common, patterned after the monasteries, whose economic structure was modelled after the communist sect called 'Christians.' (The main center of early Christianity,The Jerusalem Church, held everything in common, until the destruction of the temple in 70 AD.) In the Bible, chapter of Acts, communism is preached as being the economic order commanded by the Lord.
The Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock initially wanted a communist system....
One of The Archbishops of Canterbury -William Temple (1942?) was a Marxist.
" Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the greater consideration."
President Abe Lincohn, first Congressional address, Dec.3 1861
Marxism is mainly incorrect due to its severe economic determinism and materialism. Marxists believed everything was environmental- change the outward economic modes, then a 'New Man' would emerge.....This view ignores the imput of autonomous, crucial, non-material factors and interventions- religious inspiration (the Protestant Ethic), biology and genetics, art, etc.
The economic base was falsely thought to ALWAYS determine the 'ideology'....but history disproves this...
Lenin's introduction of the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1922-1923 is viewed by many as being as the burial of orthodox Marxism.
The trade union labor movement blunted the appeal of Marxist socialism, mainly by satisfying the workers with concessions, diluting revolutionary fervor.
posted by Zero at 4:25 PM
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