On 'I am not a Marxist' quote.

  1. ZeroNowhere
    While it has been abused by Rubel and such for ages, all it was was Marx distancing himself from a group of communists in France who happened to be calling themselves 'Marxists' (implying some association with him), with Engels later calling Lafargue a 'so-called Marxist' in a letter, and referring to French 'Marxism' as an "altogether peculiar product". Engels suggests that one of the reasons was using historical materialism as an excuse to avoid study of history rather than as a tool for doing so. Some stuff on the context is given here.
    So, as far as I'm concerned, you have no right to claim knowledge of 'what Marx really meant when he said' that. There's no reason to believe that he was saying anything more interesting or profound than that he had nothing to do with those French communists.

    Regards,
    A doctrinaire De Leonite.
  2. Kaze no Kae
    Kaze no Kae
    I had heard that... but all the same, I don't think Marx would have been comfortable with the use of the term "Marxist" anyway
  3. S.Artesian
    I think comrade ZeroNowhere is wrong-- not in his historical information on the phrase.. but in claiming that "you have no right to claim..."

    Indeed, if you know what the historical background really is, then you know what the real meaning of Marx's words are-- calling yourself a Marxist is no excuse for being an idiot.... and lazy, i.e. proclaiming your fidelity to "historical materialism" as a reason to not grasp real material history. The real meaning of Marx's words is: "This isn't just about flogging another commodity in the "marketplace" of ideas." Or "Don't fetishize, analyze." Or "Quit whining, and do your homework."
  4. Martin Blank
    I think comrade ZeroNowhere is wrong-- not in his historical information on the phrase.. but in claiming that "you have no right to claim..."

    Indeed, if you know what the historical background really is, then you know what the real meaning of Marx's words are-- calling yourself a Marxist is no excuse for being an idiot.... and lazy, i.e. proclaiming your fidelity to "historical materialism" as a reason to not grasp real material history. The real meaning of Marx's words is: "This isn't just about flogging another commodity in the "marketplace" of ideas." Or "Don't fetishize, analyze." Or "Quit whining, and do your homework."
    Or all of the above.

    From what I've read of Marx (and, yes, it's a lot), he really had a strong view against name-ism, and seemed to imply that it was the beginning of turning a political program into a religion. From what we've seen of the name-ists over the last century, including those who take Marx's name in vain, I think he had a point.

    Moreover, Marx repeatedly pointed out (as did Engels, in talking about Marx after his death) that what he did was not something special. He seemed to have a sense that, if he hadn't elaborated the basic tenets of communist theory, then someone else would have eventually. I think that is something every name-ist should think about, both when considering what Marx did and when considering what their specific name-ist subject (Lenin, DeLeon, Trotsky, Mao, etc.) did.

    I think I've only used the term "Marxist" to describe my views once in the last few years, and that was in the recent thread on "non-doctrinaire communism" in the Learning forum. Usually, I just call myself a communist and leave it at that, letting the politics speak for themselves.
  5. neosyndic
    ''Marxism'' is an invention of ''marxists'' and consequently there are many ''marxisms''.

    this is why i am never a member, only a selective follower.