what the hell is Orthodox?

[R_P_A_S]

I hear it all the time. and I've looked it up. But I would like to get some of you to explain it to me. what is it. and how one is an Orthodox communist, or marxist.. or what the hell does it really mean?

[Revulero]

i really dont know but im assuming that it is someone that strictly follows the teachings of marx's writings. this would probably exclude other teachings put in by lenin, mao, ect.

[ComradeRed]

Originally posted by [email protected] 03, 2007 08:15 pm
i really dont know but im assuming that it is someone that strictly follows the teachings of marx's writings. this would probably exclude other teachings put in by lenin, mao, ect.
Right, "Orthodox Marxism" rejects Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Mao, et al.'s "theoretical supplements" to Marx and Engels' original theories.

Such is life.

[Hiero]

People who still think it is the the late 1800's.

[Organic Revolution]

People who take one persons perspective and treat it as truth.

[Janus]

It's synonymous with classical Marxism and it is usually used to describe those who are non-deviationist i.e. do not accept Leninism, Maoism,etc.

[Kwisatz Haderach]

The word "orthodoxy" comes from Greek and literally means "correct doctrine" (ortho = correct; dox = doctrine). An orthodox Marxist (or orthodox anything else) is someone who believes in a very rigid doctrine that (s)he considers to be perfect or nearly perfect.

In other words, "orthodox" is the opposite of "flexible". When applied to Marxism, it is generally used by anti-communists to imply that Marxism is rigid and dogmatic.

[( R )evolution]

An Orthodox Marxist is someone who ridigly follows the classical Marxism of the 1800s and rejects the ideas that followed i.e Leninism, Maosim etc

[Die Neue Zeit]

^^^ I see parallels between "orthodox Marxism" and various religious groups that reject oral tradition entirely in favour of a written one. These religious groups are either non-existent or a select minority.

I also see a fundamental problem of "orthodox Marxism" (dogmatism) that has unfortunately remained in much of revolutionary thought today: the assumption of the purely competitive model as the base for the economic analysis of capitalism, when we have clearly entered into the monopoly model.

[Now, I won't go so far as to say that there are completely different relations and features, like what Baran and Sweezy wrongfully said (http://www.marxistlibr.org/meth.html), because there remain similarities.]

ComradeRed: While I applaud Marx for taking the time to study the Russian and "Asiatic" situations, and in the former attempt to stray from his universal model laid out in Das Kapital, Engels should be disparaged for following through Marx's logic of different rates of development through to the monopolistic conclusion.

That's where, again, Baran and Sweezy come in to a certain extent, in spite of their political sympathies towards Maoist political thought.

[Leo]

"Orthodox" Marxism was what Kautsky called himself. It is a term which refers to the "center" in the old social democracy.


Right, "Orthodox Marxism" rejects Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Mao, et al.'s "theoretical supplements" to Marx and Engels' original theories.


An Orthodox Marxist is someone who ridigly follows the classical Marxism of the 1800s and rejects the ideas that followed i.e Leninism, Maosim etc

That sounds more close to the "Invariance" theories of the so-called "Bordigists".

[More Fire for the People]

There are two counts of orthodox Marxism: Kautsky's [as Leo shows] and the Lukacs which simply states that an orthodox Marxist is one who uses the materialist dialectic.