Wednesday 24 March 2010

Unreformed

"Meanwhile, some of Gordon Brown's worst enemies are revealing themselves as the worst sort of reformed-Trot whore," writes Martin Meenagh.

But there is nothing "reformed" about them. They have followed academic Marxism from economic to moral, social, cultural and constitutional means to exactly the same ends as ever, namely the destruction of the family, of private property, and of the State.

Those were accurately, if hardly profoundly, identified by Engels as having been mutually dependent from the first. "The withering away of the State" is a Marxist term for a Marxist aspiration, part and parcel of which is the "withering away" of the family and the "withering away" of private property.

Not only in her definition of politics in terms of economics was Margaret Thatcher anything but a bulwark against the advance of Marxism. Or, as it renamed itself, neoconservatism in general and New Labour in particular. It is neither conservative nor Labour, any more than she was.

7 comments:

  1. We're all laughing in Durham about that Times story!

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  2. You people who keep trying to post this rubbish have so obviously never been within a hundred miles of Durham that it is truly hilarious to read you.

    If you knew the true character of those with whom you are associated here, then perhaps even you would have nothing to do with them. Then again, probably not.

    Of course I don't care what is written in some loss-making, Murdoch-owned, anti-Catholic tabloid. Nor should anyone care what is written in anything that employs Oliver Kamm. Don't be silly.

    Now, on-topic, please.

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  3. You've said it yourself often enough, David. Such "pursuits" are no problem to them. Your pipsqueak critics in this old town are coming along nicely as trainee members of that set.

    They will be gone in a few weeks and we can all say a particularly good riddance this year. Police and Social Sevices on University property, the shame of it. You were in hospital at the time so you might not know, but I expect you do by now.

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  4. I am not putting up anything more off-topic.

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  5. And Marx never really had much against capitalism per se. Indeed, he was in awe of its terrifying power and its ability to destroy traditional, religious culture, as it indeed did.

    While I sometimes think that Marxists or "Marxians" do some good analysis, and perhaps Marx got some things right, it is the "rightness" of the stopped clock, which is correct twice a day.

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  6. "destruction of the family, of private property, and of the State"

    1. Please demonstrate how the decline of marriage is state sanctioned rather than a natural process. Militant was actually quite puritanical and thought homosexuality would vanish under socialism - until very late in its history. Byers though is an ex-member, you are right about that.

    2. Why wanting the end of "private property" is consistent with lobbying for private enterprise is a mystery.

    3. I wasn't aware New Labour's acolytes have any credibility as socialists, however you define the term. But you have claimed to be one; presumably an autocratic/theocratic state would suit you just fine. As a Soviet Bloc apologist, not unknown to you, once put it: "The biggest mistake of the socialist regimes in Eastern Europe was not building an alliance with the Church."

    Only people mouthing orthodox platitudes, in authoritarian groups like the SWP, think the state would "whither away" under socialism.

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  7. You need to read more. Or, indeed, at all.

    And don't regurgitate Kammite rubbish about Neil Clark, although I admit that you will have to post it somewhere when Harry's Place is bankrupted in the libel courts.

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