[Xmca-l] Re: Erratic Marxists

[mike cole]

Thanks for your informed comments on this topic, as well, Morten and Andy.
Its important for us to consider as all of us observe what is happening and
wonder, again, what follows trends so marked, that it is possible for the
notion of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer becomes a
part of everyday American popular discourse. I can remember all too clearly
when expressing such opinions was sufficient to have people loose jobs and,
and if they engaged in political action to try to bring about change, ended
them in jail. THAT has changed. Right or wrong, Varoufakis seems to be
honestly confronting the issue.... perhaps a case of necessity being the
mother or invention.

If her is waiting for the European workers to come to the aid of Greece,
Andy, he is more optimistic than I am. But that is my badly informed hunch.

mike


mike


On Sun, Feb 22, 2015 at 2:31 AM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:

> Thanks Morten.
> Probably the most important virtues at the moment for someone in
> Varoufakis's position are honesty and frankness. I really appreciate these
> qualities in him.
> All he can do at the moment is play for time while looking to the European
> workers to come to the aid of Greece. It is a political task, rather than a
> problem of economics.
> Let us all wish them well!
>
> Andy
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *Andy Blunden*
> http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
>
>
>
> Morten Nissen wrote:
>
>> Dear xmca
>>
>> It is few who realize how central are the Greek and Spanish oppositions
>> to European austerity politics for any hope for a change that might halt
>> the glide toward increasing inequality and nationalist reactions. So,
>> Varoufakis is my hero - even if some of his statements may be debatable. To
>> me, he is one of those laudable economists who are able to look beyond
>> economic formulae, like Piketty.
>>
>> He is brave in taking up Marx, no small thing for an economist. And he is
>> right in his critique of Marx, too, if we read his text looking for truth
>> rather than correctness. Marx did in fact sometimes substitute polemics for
>> dialectics, and scold opponents for being wrong rather than engage in
>> immanent critique. And behind this it does make sense to point to Marx'
>> neglecting to address subjectivity in the epistemological sense, as the
>> issue of we who think and act (instead taken up by Kierkegaard, Heidegger,
>> Sartre, and later the poststructuralists). This is what has weakened the
>> left most: Rather than trying to reflect and understand how we constitute
>> ourselves as "us" (the revolutionary Party, the State, the Theory, etc.),
>> we have split up and pointed fingers at each other for being wrong.
>> Varoufakis' arguments for a liberal pluralism (and "erratic readings")
>> combined with a collective social responsibility for not just a radical
>> change, but also for how it may come about, are important truths, even if
>> we can find a few unimportant incorrectnesses.
>>
>> Morten Nissen
>> PhD, Dr. Psych.
>> Professor
>> Department of Education Aarhus University Tuborgvej 164
>> 2400 Copenhagen NV
>>
>> Tlf: +45 30282418
>> www.edu.au.dk/
>>
>>
>> -----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
>> Fra: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@
>> mailman.ucsd.edu] På vegne af Larry Purss
>> Sendt: 22. februar 2015 07:04
>> Til: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>> Emne: [Xmca-l] Re: Erratic Marxists
>>
>> Mike,
>> I also was struck by Varoufakis argument that everything is "pregnant"
>> with its opposite and creating "joint productions" [such as labour's two
>> quite different natures:{ 1] labour as a value creating activity that can
>> never be "quantified" in advance AND 2] labour as a "quantity" }.
>>
>> Another "error" [as he sees it] was for the left to embrace "equality and
>> justice" as rallying cries, thereby allowing the neo-liberals to "occupy"
>> the "space" of  "liberty, freedom,and rationality" which becomes the
>> neo-liberal rallying cry.
>>
>> Does present a theme [a sense] inviting further reflection.
>> Larry
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Feb 21, 2015 at 8:09 PM, Annalisa Aguilar <annalisa@unm.edu>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>> Greg!
>>>
>>> Is this a different rendition of the ends justifies the means? or the
>>> meets? or the meats?
>>>
>>> :)
>>>
>>> Annalisa
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>


-- 
It is the dilemma of psychology to deal as a natural science with an object
that creates history. Ernst Boesch.