From: Jerry Levy (Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM)
Date: Wed Oct 25 2006 - 09:00:30 EDT
> MP: Of course, I would like to see a peaceful, socialist world. If > someone as far-seeing as Marx refused to prepare cookbooks for the future, > I would certainly not take up such a project. To build such a future > requires collective action, not the musings of an obscure academic. Hi Michael: I understand your point but I think it's a bit one-sided. Yes, I agree that academics and intellectuals can not presume that _they_ will be the ones who will come up with the recipes which will be selected in the future by the working class. Yet, thinking about the character of socialism is also an important practical political task and has been for some time, especially since the downfall of the former USSR and other 'socialist' societies. Indeed, some 'recipes' (note plural) are required to answer the TINA (There Is No Alternative) argument of Neo-Liberalism. And, imo, there need to be anti-Stalinist and anti-authoritarian recipes since workers in every part of the world will not join a fight for another 1930s Soviet-type society. So, while I don't think that academics per se should be the ones charged with this responsibility, thinking about the character of socialism is not by any means a fantasy. What is needed is for there to be an ongoing discussion by workers and activists about what sort of society they want. Discussions of utopias are no longer Utopian. In solidarity, Jerry
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