peaccenicked
9th March 2009, 03:08
There is no need, we think, to go into any further details of Nietzschean epistemology and its application. As we can already see, Nietzsche hereby created for the whole imperialist period a methodological ‘model’ of the indirect apologetics of capitalism, showing just how a fascinating and colourful symbol-realm of imperialist myth could be evolved from an extremely agnosticist epistemology, a theory of the most extreme nihilism. We have avoided dwelling — deliberately so — on the blatant contradictions in his myth structures. Were we to study Nietzsche’s statements in this area from a logico-philosophical angle, we would be confronted by a dizzy chaos of the most lurid assertions, arbitrary and violently incompatible. Nevertheless we do not believe that this observation contradicts the view we developed at the outset, the view that Nietzsche had a consistent system. The binding or systematic factor lies in the social content of his thinking, in the struggle against socialism. Regarded from this viewpoint, Nietzsche’s brightly variegated, mutually irreconcilable myths will yield up their ideational unity, their objective coherence: they are imperialist bourgeois myths serving to mobilize all imperialist forces against the chief adversary. The fact that the struggle of masters and herd, of nobles and slaves amounts to a mythical counterpart, in caricature form, to the class struggle is not too hard to discern. We have demonstrated that Nietzsche’s challenge to Darwin was a myth arising from the justified fear that the normal course of history must lead to socialism. We have also shown that behind eternal recurrence there hides a self-consoling, mythical decree that evolution can produce nothing fundamentally new (and therefore no socialism). Another point we can see quite easily is that the Superman came about in order to steer back on to capitalist lines, etc., etc., the yearning spontaneously springing from the problems of capitalist life, its distortion and stunting of human beings. And the ‘positive’ part of the Nietzschean myths is no more than a mobilization of all the decadent and barbaric instincts in men corrupted by capitalism in order to save by force this parasitical paradise; here again, Nietzsche’s philosophy is the imperialist myth designed to counter socialist humanism. 1 (http://www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/works/destruction-reason/ch03.htm)
Here Lukacs identified that bourgeois thought was geared towards the destruction of socialist humanism. The same could be said for sociology.
Marvin Harris says this of Morgan.(The rise of Anthropology)
With Morgan's scheme introduced introduced into communist doctrine, the struggling science of anthropology crossed the threshold of the twentieth century with a clear mandate for its own survival and well-being: expose Morgan's scheme and destroy the method on which it was based. The anthropological attack against Morgan was to have these consequences.
1) The abandonment of the comparative method
2) The rejection of the attempt to view history from a nomothetic standpoint
3) The postponement of actual test of the cultural materialist strategy for forty years.
Meyers would have been closer to the truth had he stated that cultural anthropology developed entirely in reaction to, instead of independently to Marxism".
There has been all sorts of attacks and misrepresentations, much of this
has spilt over into the left. Many have learnt why Marx is wrong at the university and have brought it into the left.
There are many groups claiming continuity of the Marxist tradition. There is continuity. Many Anarchists take on board much of this tradition as far as it can be described a single body of thought.
How far it is correct to to generalize the experience, observations and conclusions of Marx and apply them to all fields is another question. The question of the State is yet another matter. I do not sit on the fence here
but irrationalism inside both camps has lead to deep divisions. As the years have went on I have been less interested in this dialogue of the deaf but organised besides both anarchists and marxists within the anti-war movement.
Irrationalism, was given a victory by the splits in the third international and its dominance by the political counter revolution roughly designated by Stalinism. The splits in the fourth international suggested that beyond bureaucratic collectivism, "unity of ideas" was a forlorn hope.
Yet rationalism is not merely dependent on the vagaries of the movement
and programmatic cleansing exercises but historical necessity and its interplay with human agency.
The crisis of the Anglo American empire is at the doorstep of all humanity.
The bubble that reinforced the atomization of the working class has burst.
Yet we are at the beginning. The seriousness of this crisis has not hit the vast majority of people. Even much of the left are lost as if it was business
as usual. This crisis is not the direct result of the business cycle but the unravelling of the shadow banking system.
There is a $700 trillion dollar elephant (http://inthesenewtimes.com/2009/03/07/the-700-trillion-elephant/) in the room, that has yet to enter the dialogue.
The dialogue of the deaf is no longer just with the anarchists but the routinists of the left.
What we will find is a return to Nietzsche.
Another point we can see quite easily is that the Superman came about in order to steer back on to capitalist lines, etc., etc., the yearning spontaneously springing from the problems of capitalist life, its distortion and stunting of human beings. And the ‘positive’ part of the Nietzschean myths is no more than a mobilization of all the decadent and barbaric instincts in men corrupted by capitalism in order to save by force this parasitical paradise;
Socialist humanism has chance, an opportunity, if it stays awake, and consistently takes to task the irrationalism of imperialist ideology as
the financiers seek to externalize their inextricable problems and seek to divide and rule.
Here Lukacs identified that bourgeois thought was geared towards the destruction of socialist humanism. The same could be said for sociology.
Marvin Harris says this of Morgan.(The rise of Anthropology)
With Morgan's scheme introduced introduced into communist doctrine, the struggling science of anthropology crossed the threshold of the twentieth century with a clear mandate for its own survival and well-being: expose Morgan's scheme and destroy the method on which it was based. The anthropological attack against Morgan was to have these consequences.
1) The abandonment of the comparative method
2) The rejection of the attempt to view history from a nomothetic standpoint
3) The postponement of actual test of the cultural materialist strategy for forty years.
Meyers would have been closer to the truth had he stated that cultural anthropology developed entirely in reaction to, instead of independently to Marxism".
There has been all sorts of attacks and misrepresentations, much of this
has spilt over into the left. Many have learnt why Marx is wrong at the university and have brought it into the left.
There are many groups claiming continuity of the Marxist tradition. There is continuity. Many Anarchists take on board much of this tradition as far as it can be described a single body of thought.
How far it is correct to to generalize the experience, observations and conclusions of Marx and apply them to all fields is another question. The question of the State is yet another matter. I do not sit on the fence here
but irrationalism inside both camps has lead to deep divisions. As the years have went on I have been less interested in this dialogue of the deaf but organised besides both anarchists and marxists within the anti-war movement.
Irrationalism, was given a victory by the splits in the third international and its dominance by the political counter revolution roughly designated by Stalinism. The splits in the fourth international suggested that beyond bureaucratic collectivism, "unity of ideas" was a forlorn hope.
Yet rationalism is not merely dependent on the vagaries of the movement
and programmatic cleansing exercises but historical necessity and its interplay with human agency.
The crisis of the Anglo American empire is at the doorstep of all humanity.
The bubble that reinforced the atomization of the working class has burst.
Yet we are at the beginning. The seriousness of this crisis has not hit the vast majority of people. Even much of the left are lost as if it was business
as usual. This crisis is not the direct result of the business cycle but the unravelling of the shadow banking system.
There is a $700 trillion dollar elephant (http://inthesenewtimes.com/2009/03/07/the-700-trillion-elephant/) in the room, that has yet to enter the dialogue.
The dialogue of the deaf is no longer just with the anarchists but the routinists of the left.
What we will find is a return to Nietzsche.
Another point we can see quite easily is that the Superman came about in order to steer back on to capitalist lines, etc., etc., the yearning spontaneously springing from the problems of capitalist life, its distortion and stunting of human beings. And the ‘positive’ part of the Nietzschean myths is no more than a mobilization of all the decadent and barbaric instincts in men corrupted by capitalism in order to save by force this parasitical paradise;
Socialist humanism has chance, an opportunity, if it stays awake, and consistently takes to task the irrationalism of imperialist ideology as
the financiers seek to externalize their inextricable problems and seek to divide and rule.