It is always dangerous to project our values and current opinions back upon thinkers of the past and hold them accountable to standards they could not have been aware of. This article does, I think, too much of that and also relies too much on secondary sources rather than the primary writings of these past thinkers. When we teach them today we tend to pass over their errors and emphasize the positive philosophical accomplishments achieved by them. With the possible exception of Heidegger, I really don't see that any of the mistaken views of these other past thinkers, especially Hume, Voltaire, and Kant have influenced current expressions of anti-Semitism or that they are particularly quoted by anti-Semites to justify their beliefs or that contemporary practitioners of the teaching of the history of philosophy are contributing to expressions of anti-Semitism as they are occurring today, which have their sources in contemporary political and ethnic conflicts we are all well aware of and have origins remote from the academy and the history of the Enlightenment.
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Saturday, February 16, 2019
Socialism or Barbarism
"Socialism or barbarism" -- what does that mean? Authoritarian regimes will ultimately control all aspects of the political life of a country either with the velvet or the iron fist depending on the consciousness of the population of the country. Orban in Hungary is trying to be as controlling as the previous Communist government so the question for Hungary isn't will there be "democracy" but which class will control the levers of power. Previously the working class was in power and the bourgeoisie felt oppressed and the petty bourgeoisie was split. The leaders of the working class were unable to maintain their class hegemony and lost power and the bourgeoisie felt oppressed and the petty bourgeoisie was split. The leaders of the working class were unable to maintain their class hegemony and lost power to the bourgeois forces. Now the bourgeoisie is in power and the working class feels oppressed and the petty bourgeoisie is again split. Each class will try to control the courts, media, education and civil society so it is never a case of "democracy" versus "authoritarianism" but, if you are a hard-nosed realist it's "capitalist authoritarianism" versus "working-class authoritarianism" or, if you prefer, "bourgeois democracy*" versus "socialist democracy." Both class types share a limited amount of their power with the other class depending on the historical circumstances of the country involved but ultimately the working-class can exist without the capitalist class but the capitalist class cannot exist without the working-class. We all know which class is now controlling most of the world and that there is only one major world power where the working class is in power -- as Marxists we are, as it were, the super-ego of the working-class and are working for its ultimate victory over the capitalists. Marx and Engels thought the working class would ultimately win this class struggle but they also warned it could end with "the common ruin of the contending classes". That would be the triumph of barbarism; either socialism will eventually triumph or capitalism will destroy civilization as we know it (it is well on the way of doing so).
* In extremis the capitalists will dispense with the pretense of "democracy."
Saturday, February 9, 2019
Impeachment and the Supreme Court
The problem is not having a Supreme Court, but having one that could go against the will of the majority of the American people on vital democratic rights. For example, Trump, as well as Bush Jr., got to the presidency by flukes and they did not represent the choice of the American people. Trump especially represents a very conservative to ultra-right minority and has already appointed two Supreme Court justices who represent views out of sync with the general population and approach constitutional questions from an extremely undemocratic interpretive stance based on their personal political ideologies, this also applies to others on the court but more so to the so-called conservatives who reflect the minority sentiments of the population. Congress has the power to impeach a Supreme Court justice and should not be afraid to use this power to protect the democratic rights of the American people if it is determined a justice is violating his/her oath to defend the Constitution or that he/she lied or dissembled to Congress during confirmation hearings in order to be confirmed. There is prima facie evidence that Justice Thomas, for example, may have been guilty of lying to Congress about the Anita Hill affair and there is no reason a newly elected Congress cannot reopen hearings to determine if a previous Congress was lied to. Justices are not sacrosanct and the democratic rights of the American people are too valuable to be held hostage by a cabal of Justices operating to further the interests of a political party or partisan minority against the general will of the people.
Sunday, February 3, 2019
What is Racism? The UN definition of 1965 tells us.
This article is a case study of the behavior of racist governments and anyone who thinks that the UN rescinded its designation of Zionism as racism for any other reason than the pressure applied by the US government (itself an example of institutional racism) is sadly mistaken. ["The UN General Assembly based its 1975 anti-Zionist resolution on the UN’s own definition of racial discrimination, adopted in 1965. According to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, racial discrimination is “any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.” "-- Counterpunch, November 5, 2003 "Zionism as Racist Ideology" by BILL CHRISTISON - KATHLEEN CHRISTISON]
Just as a matter of logic, as long as the word "any" is in the Convention how can Zionism escape inclusion in the definition of racial discrimination? Can anyone honestly say that Palestinians and Israeli Arabs have "equal footing" with Jewish citizens of Israel? US democracy is also racist as it does not treat minority people and the poor on an "equal footing" with the privileged white majority. We will never be rid of racism, if we are to be honest, until we have a society in which the principle of from each according to his/her ability to each according to his/her needs is actually practiced.
Saturday, December 29, 2018
Government Sponsored Youth Beatings
This report highlights the fact that these young prisoners were treated exactly like our movies and TV portray the treatment of prisoners in NAZI and Communist prisons -- and this in a state effectively run by the Democrats and Republicans -- both of whom are portrayed as representing the USA as a freedom loving country which would never act like the NAZI or Communist enemies. Meanwhile, our police and correction officers and populated more and more by white supremacists and neo-Nazis who are actively seeking to infiltrate these state agencies. This type of brutality is portrayed as SOP in countries such as Russia, China, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, etc., but as the result of rogue individuals acting on their own in the US or our allies. President Trump even condones the bloodthirsty murder and dismembering of a journalist by the Saudi Government on the orders of its de facto leader Prince Salman as the action of rogue elements acting behind his back. In NY both the mayor of NYC and the state's governor are aware of the brutality carried out against young offenders by ordinary as well as some of the highest ranking officers and we shall see if any officials are fired, let alone prosecuted as the criminals they are. Kudos as well for the NYT which everyone in a while exposes the bare bones reality behind the surface of bourgeois democracy (when advertising revenue isn't threatened).
About this website
NYTIMES.COM
Young Inmates Say They Were Shipped Upstate, Held in Isolation and BeatenThe abuse was designed for inmates from Rikers Island who had been accused of assaulting correction officers, according to a lawsuit.
Monday, December 24, 2018
Identity Politics vs Class Consciousness
The distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is continually being abused and/or ignored. Also, some of the comments made by the disputants in this article about "all Jews" and all white people should remind us of the perilous terrain we enter when we start talking about "all" of an ethnic, religious, or national group (all Black people, the Chinese are such and such, the Irish, etc.,) this is the soil in which the seeds of racism are sown. The greatest confusion of all is the lack of understanding about class as opposed to ethnicity. Jewish bankers and Jewish factory workers have little in common in their living standards and lifestyles and have more in common with Black Bankers and Black factory workers respectively, and working-class women have more in common with working-class men than either has with upper-class bourgeois capitalist men or women. Identity politics is, in fact, a ruling class invention to tamper down and prevent the development of class consciousness by dividing the oppressed along "racial," gender, ethnic and religious lines as they know full well that once class consciousness is fully developed it marks the beginning of the end of their oppressive rule. Let's not help them in this by playing by their rule book.
About this website
NYTIMES.COM
Women’s March Roiled by Accusations of Anti-SemitismAs the second anniversary of the Women’s March approaches, charges of anti-Semitism are overshadowing the movement and plans for more marches.
Sunday, December 23, 2018
Alexandra Kollontai Meets Hillary Clinton
Is Hillary Clinton a perfect example of the bourgeois pseudo-feminist described in this quote from Alexandra Kollontai?* It seems the corporate wing of the Democratic Party that she (along with Schumer, Biden, Pelosi and their allies) represents is utterly incapable of truly representing the interests of working-class women (let alone men) [excuse the binary classification]. The working class vote for Trump is mainly due to the underdeveloped understanding of class consciousness amongst working people [which it is the duty of Marxists to try to correct, and not by uncritically supporting right wing and "moderate" Democrats in the name of defeating Republicans]. Unless Marxists can find a way to radicalize the consciousness of the working class, without compromising opportunistic short-term tactics, the capitalist 1% will continue its rule by playing musical chairs with the leadership of the Republican and Democratic parties while Communists and other progressives will continue to play second fiddle to the bourgeoisie.
*"Class instinct – whatever the feminists say – always shows itself to be more powerful than the noble enthusiasms of “above-class” politics. So long as the bourgeois women and their [proletarian] “younger sisters” are equal in their inequality, the former can, with complete sincerity, make great efforts to defend the general interests of women. But once the barrier is down and the bourgeois women have received access to political activity, the recent defenders of the “rights of all women” become enthusiastic defenders of the privileges of their class, content to leave the younger sisters with no rights at all. Thus, when the feminists talk to working women about the need for a common struggle to realise some “general women’s” principle, women of the working class are naturally distrustful.
— Alexandra Kollontai (1909), The Social Basis of the Woman Question,"
— Alexandra Kollontai (1909), The Social Basis of the Woman Question,"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)