Re: [OPE] Wikileaks, Karl Marx and you

> Corporations and states do nothing, people do.

Hi Jurriaan:

That is the same road taken by the post-modernists.
One could just as well say that classes do nothing, people do. Or, that
educational institutions and the media do nothing, people do. Or, that the
military and the police do nothing, people do. This indeed has been the
defense often given by these institutions to charges of war crimes and
police brutality - 'it's not the fault of the military (or the police
department) it's the fault of an individual (or individuals).

You are entitled to your perspective, of course, but I think this is a
very different way of analyzing social issues than that used by Marx
(I only note that because you often cite your interpretation of Marx in
your posts).

In solidarity, Jerry

PS:
> I do not really know what you mean or intend with your quote from Marx's
> critique of Hegel's philosophy of right.

I intended to promote a discussion on Marx's perspective on the state
and democracy. While there will be some (especially anarchists) who
will see in the quote confirmation of their perspective that states are
inherently undemocratic, I would explain the quotation in another way:
states (regardless of their form of governance), for Marx, are expressions and
representations of class rule. Thus, it is a lie to say that a state under
the slave mode of production (or feudalism or capitalism....) can be democratic
because there is a *class* dictatorship wherever there is a mode of production
based on class exploitation.
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Received on Fri Jan 21 09:52:46 2011