Re: [OPE] free competition

Paula, I went through your article 'atheism is not enough.....' and found it interesting. Your emphasis on social order is very useful. In this context, I just wanted to share with you and others who might be interested in the theme of your article that there were three books that appeared in Telugu on this theme. It is Ranganayakamma, a member of this list, wrote three small books in Telugu language on the same theme as follows: (1) Atheism: an examination [This deals specifically with a very important atheist but was a political follower of  M. K. Gandhi, the bourgeios leader] (2) Atheism, Rationalism and Radical Humanism [This deals with various brands of atheism in the State of Andhra Pradesh, India and M.N.Roy's theory of Radical Humanism]. (3) Battle with the Shadow [a polemical work against the arguments of bourgeois radicals based on the writings of Marx, Engels and Lenin at various places]. The essence of her arguments is that atheism and such other radical bourgeois materialist arguments have their own limitations and unless we connect the atheist/rationalist propaganda with the phenomenon of 'exploitation of labour' and consequent superstructural ideas, it will turn into a battle with the shadow [religion etc]of the exploiters/exploitative social relations.  These books have been undergoing reprints for the past three decades. The first one appeared in 1976, the second one in 1979 and the third one in 1980. These influenced many rationalists/atheists who, after reading these books, left those organizations and joined Marxism oriented organizations. We have not translated these books into English. [We gave preference to the English translations of Ranganayakamma's books on Marx's 'capital' and a critique of Ramayana, the Indian epic and so on.] Bapuji   B.R.Bapuji, Professor, Centre for Applied Linguistics & Translation Studies [CALTS], University of Hyderabad, Central University post office, HYDERABAD-500 046. (Phone: 040-23133655,23133650 or 23010161). Residence address: 76, Lake-side Colony, Near Durgam Cheruvu, [End of Road opp:Madapur Police Station], Jubilee Hills post, Hyderabad-500033. (Phone: 040-23117302)   ________________________________ From: Paula <Paula_cerni@msn.com> To: Outline on Political Economy mailing list <ope@lists.csuchico.edu> Sent: Thu, April 21, 2011 10:12:36 PM Subject: Re: [OPE] free competition Jerry wrote: "one could add that (pro-capitalist) libertarianism is a religion complete with its own myths". The analogy with religion is useful. Religion also would not be worth talking about if it was just a bunch of ideological constructions. But the basis of religion is in real life, in practice (I have written about this in my article "Atheism is Not Enough: A Socialist Dare to Religion and Science, available here http://www.stateofnature.org/atheismIsNotEnough.html). A perfect and absolute God does not exist, but the imperfections of a society that pushes people to join churches certainly do. Similarly, perfect and absolute freedom for capital does not exist, but capitals' limited freedom to compete with each other and to exploit workers is very real. It is the practices that give rise to the ideological concepts. Paula _______________________________________________ ope mailing list ope@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope

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Received on Thu Apr 21 13:42:31 2011