[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Re: NAFTA, Capitalism and Alternatives: Debate, pt.1
But I am Marxist in much of my own ideological leanings. My objection is
to the pat, crude Marxism on these lists that is the same old knee-jerk
rhetoric. All your talk about collective farming seems like it is drawn
from some sense of heartfelt sympathy, i.e., your tender feelings for the
poor little peasants, than serious analysis. Have you read the studies
of the failure of the Mexican ejido system? The idea of collective
farming as an alternative to capitalism is not a new idea. It is what
the Mexican state, that these so-called leftists on the lists so boldly
condemn, has been experimenting with since 1920! I study this problem
seriously, and I find it offensive to have people throw around shallow
rhetoric in the place of serious analysis based on concrete experience.
The neoliberals blow us lefties away because they at least know what they
are talking about when they analyze the economy. Collective ejidos are a
tired old idea! They were tried in Mexico in the 20s, the attempt was
intensified in the 30s, and what was the problem? They required credit,
technology, etc, etc, all the components of the capitalist developers
they were made to overcome. How pitiful! The story goes on! There is a
sentimental myth leftists entertain that the Indians left to themselves
had a culture that did not dispoil the earth, and capitalism and European
technology ruined the environment. Have you read the recent comments on
the new study that indicates the Maya declined in part because their
indigenous, communal, collectivist practices destroyed the environment.
It is as though the MArxists are too lazy to have even read MArx, and
just want to weep and wail. Marx showed that peasant collectivism was
the form of human society for hundreds of years - it is what we call
feudal. How can Marxists be so crude today to forget the very analysis
of Marx himself. How can we advocate medieval communalism as the
alternativew to capitalism when it was that structure of the feudal state
that produced capitalism. Indeed, assuming that all peoples develop
along universal patterns and structures, the entire anti-European
critique collapses upon itself. The Mexica were producing elements of a
commercial regime out of their own feudalism, if I may use those terms
loosely for the sake of analogy.
So my objection is not to a leftist challenge to capitalism, it is with
the very weak and unconvincing quality of the analysis the left produces
on the Internet. It is immature, ungrounded in research or even any
depth in scholarly accomplishment. It seems forever to reinvent the
wheel, as though its purpose is purely to satisfy the emotional cravings
of the writers, and not serious analysis at all. Hence I am forced to
resort to follow the logic of the neoliberals, because their own
self-criticism is more productive than the essentially sterile
whimperings of my own leftist comrades, with whom I share sentiment, but
not weakness of head, I hope.
Victor Story
Kutztown U.
References: