Stupid Question about Dialectical Materialism

[Grunt]

Sorry for asking, but how important is the 'dialectical' part
of dialectical materialism?

Alright, alright: I know that Dialectical Materialism is
(supposed to be?) the philosophical/metaphysical
background(framework?) of Marxism/Leninism.

And I know what (philosophical) materialism (or positivism)
is.

So Marx was influenced by Hegel (more in his youth, less
later on?) and 'merged'(?) Hegels (idealistic) philosophy with
plain, good, old-fashioned (in a positive sense) materialism?

I read some Hegel - and didn't like it. Schopenhauer called
Hegel and his ardent followers charlatans! :lol:

Now Schopenhauer was everything but a materialist - still
I like some of his stuff. Is that bad?

Don't like the 'mechanical clickety-clack' of dialectics - you
know: Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis-... and so on forever like
a tibetan prayer wheel :lol:)

So my question: Does one have to know and accept Hegel
in order to be a good upstanding
marxist-leninist-bolshevik comrade?

Thanks for your patience!

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Marxist dialecticians vary in the extent to which they accept Hegel's ideas. At one end, you have the systematic Marxist dialecticians who appropriate almost everything he wrote, and claim he wasn't even an Idealist (but a materialist!); at the other, you have positivist Marxists who reject almost everything he said -- but still use the jargon.

On the other hand, I am almost unique among Marxists, I reject Hegel's ideas as mystical hot air, and reject the jargon too. [You can find the reasons at my site.]

Some would claim that means I am not a Marxist --, and, if Marxism were a religion, they'd be right. But, alas for them, it's a science, and all sciences throw stuff out that does not work.

Nevertheless, I claim that it is possible to be an excellent revolutionary and be a non-dialectician, too -- indeed, in their day-to-day activity, in their relation to workers, Marxists do not actually use this theory, dialectics never enters into things.

So, in practice, miltants make this distinction every day.

By the way, the Thesis/Anti-Thesis stuff has nothing to do with Hegel.

On that see here:

http://www.revleft.com/vb/showpost.php?p=707195&postcount=7

[Grunt]

Thanks Rosa!

The link was very useful...
...but your Anti-Dialectics site is BANGING! :D

...went straight to my favourites...

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Cheers!