:
: : Nice argument. : Thanks for reading the post.
: : But doesn't that just reinforce the idea of
: : radical democracy as a powerful ideological weapon - in the same way that "inviolable property rights" is the ideological weapon of choice for the privileged?
: But property rights are NOT an ideological 'weapon,' Bill---property rights are a MATERIAL relation. Ideologies FOLLOW material relations---not vice versa.
No. Property RIGHTS Are an ideological weapon. The distillation into enacting law provides the cement for the Material relations
: You've got Hegel back on his feet again---and he's dangerous there.
No, not in any Idealistic sense of "Spirit" causality. (and I've read Marx's thesis on Feuerbach BTW)
: Remember all our old debates about environment FIRST---then consciousness?
Yes. And I remember discussing the idea that "traits" such as empathetic facility are "hard-wired" in the brain - and that in this sense environment (of the brain) precedes consciousness.
: : And underlying the threat of democracy was the potential articulation of Marx's concept of alienation - a concept quickly hurled into the garbage can once decisions about economic output, plant efficiency, surplus labor, etc. were removed from an exploited class.
: I wasn't defending Stalinism, my friend.
Good grief, was I suggesting that you were?
: I thought I made it clear that he PREVENTED the humanistic goals of the original Bolsheviks.
Perfactly clear.
: We are REALLY backtracking here with the Cold War accusations, Bill...
ARE YOU JUST BEING PERVERSE??!! What Accusations?!
I thought you were defending attempts to introduce democratic restructuring - empowering trade unions etc. Democracy is a threat to Any privileged class. As an ideology it serves as a weapon. All "rights" are created and so used.
