[Xmca-l] Re: Erratic Marxists

[Andy Blunden]

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
>>
>>     
>
>
>
>