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Marx This, Marx That, So What? Printer friendly page Print This
By Michael Albert
teleSUR
Wednesday, May 18, 2016

May 5 marked the birthday of revolutionary philosopher and economist Karl Marx

Crisis engulfs. We react. Too often, out comes Marx, and for some pundits, even Lenin, Trotsky, and who knows who else. Really? Again?

Icons quoted, quoted, and quoted. And our own words? Too often into the hopper of history to come out transformed so we can claim that Marx said it and therefore it must be right. We are on the side of the Ultimate Angel.

I work at ZNet, a big left website and so I see tons of material daily. So much bad - it is rarely a picnic. Weeks, months, years, and decades come and they go. Left "scholars," especially elderly ones, just keep on muttering. Marx said it. Marx tells us it. Marx knew it. See Volume Three. The subtext (intended or not): If you don't study Marx for years on end - and for some, study Lenin and Trotsky too -  you are deficient. And perversely, the quoting and posturing escalates whenever reaching large audiences appears possible.

This is incredible in so many ways. Think, for example, what a physics class - not a history of physics, but physics per se, was told that if they didn't read the original Heisenberg or Bohr they didn't know quantum mechanics. Imagine someone making arguments about the subject and its application, by quoting distant originators.

The Marxologists, I no longer have a good estimate of
how many it is now, do all their quoting oblivious to or sometimes aware of but not caring that it makes normal people want to run and hide due to anticipating they will hear regurgitated unexplained old fashioned jargon that lacks clarity, timely rootedness, and especially actual words of their own from the person making the noises - you know something not mechanical, but heartfelt. It doesn't matter, by the way, if in some particular or conceivably even in all cases the listener's expectations of obscure, impersonal, irrelevance is right or wrong. The expectation alone cripple communication.

Okay, even as I say not to do it, I will now quote, both for insight and legitimacy, the big man, the optimistic oracle, the grandest grand daddy, the international flag bearer, or whatever so many leftists think this guy who is, after all, dispersed into the sod, is. Why will I do this? Well, whatever else, Marx was often very often eloquent and spot on, as they say. So, here is my favorite Marx, in this case, both eloquent and spot on for this essay:
"The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living."
The non Marxologists might be forgiven for thinking that Marx must be referring here to reactionaries celebrating and wishing to return to the past - but no, he isn't.
"And just as they seem to be occupied with revolutionizing themselves and things, creating something that did not exist before precisely in such epochs of revolutionary crisis they anxiously conjure up the spirits of the past to their service, borrowing from them names, battle slogans, and costumes in order to present this new scene in world history in time honored disguise and borrowed language."
So it is revolutionaries, not reactionaries, that Marx is castigating for borrowing "names, battle slogans, and costumes" from the past in order to present the present in "honored disguise and borrowed language."

Thus Luther put on the mask of the Apostle Paul, the Revolution of 1789-1814 draped itself alternately in the guise of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, and the Revolution of 1848 knew nothing better to do than to parody, now 1789, now the revolutionary tradition of 1793-95.

So we find, over and over, today is costumed as if it was yesterday, and this is done, ironically, by those claiming to seek tomorrow.

"In like manner, the beginner who has learned a new language always translates it back into his mother tongue, but he assimilates the spirit of the new language and expresses himself freely in it only when he moves in it without recalling the old and when he forgets his native tongue."

Maybe all those wanting to offer their thoughts and deeds in ways enabling them to say "Marx is on my side," ought to, for this one time, pay really close attention to their favorite thinker's words. He had a point, above, very insightful, very germane - worth assimilating.

Some will say I exaggerate the problem. Maybe I do, but did Marx exaggerate it too? If I am exaggerating, then there is no one, or very few, at any rate, who need to forego conjuring spirits of the past. Great. However, I will proceed in this screed because I think the problem is instead pretty widespread, and recently increasing - exactly in accord with Marx's prescient prediction.

But what is comrade to do? I was recently asked, in fact, what if I think I do operate in the tradition of some great thinker? Should I flaunt it? Should I hide it?

My answer was, first, you may be wrong. That is you may be updating so much that you have transcended the tradition, not just refined it, which in the case of Marxism would be good since we are talking about borrowing from a century and more in the past. But, again, it just doesn't matter. There is no need to display your lineage, much less to trumpet it, whether the claimed lineage is accurate or not. What matters instead is to make clear what you believe and to show why you believe it, all in the words of today, your words, and certainly not quoting words treated like scripture as if quoting them provides an argument or evidence. The real task is to present relevant experiences and logical claims and connections of your own, from contemporary times, in your own words, with your own feelings and passion, on behalf of your own views.

Can you present your views your way, in light of your own circumstances, also attending to the expectations, fears, and knowledge of those who you wish to now address? If so, that is excellent. It is so much better than a conjuring trick.

So let me put this as bluntly as I can.

A person quoting Marx (or whichever other long gone icon) to make a point about contemporary relations or current prospects - as compared to making a point specifically about intellectual history - is too often more concerned about getting his or her audience to genuflect to Marx, or about demonstrating his or her own allegiance to Marx, than about getting anyone to thoughtfully consider and then hopefully agree about some observation based on actual evidence and reasoning. Indeed, seeking to elevate Marx or to be identified as a supporter of Marx often has more to do with trying to ratify one's own identity and "be true to it," whatever that means, than it has to do with trying to accomplish something more worldly. The down side is that conjuring the past typically induces communicative poverty and often risks a slip slide toward sectarianism.

So in this particular case, why not take Marx's advice? Let the "dead generations" rest in peace. Awake from "nightmarish" mimicry. Make your own case. Use your own words. Use your own examples. Stop "borrowing." Create. 


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