RE: [microsound] McCapitalism

[Christopher Sorg <csorg@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Dear Christopher;
>
> Reading is nice, but the practicality is something altogether different.
> Marx and Engels wanted to remake/remodel men's nature, and their
> progeny who
> put it into practice made such a mess that you can still see it
> today (visit
> Albania and Macedonia and Russia to see what a blight its become).
>
> Best,
>
> Rudy

Marxism isn't something you put into practice.  It's an observation of a
system at work.  It's a behavior, modes of production in force today as
capitalism.  It's not some religion or political system.  You could say that
it's a belief that the capitalist system will eventually play itself out,
but not by brute force.

Here's a parallel to what I understand that you wrote: just because
philosophers of the Enlightenment used the concept of evolution to justify
the submission and dehumanization of Africans doesn't mean that Darwinism
didn't identify something essential about the creation of different species
(and his theories certainly didn't come to any conclusions and certainly not
the same ones that Hume and Hegel did).  The observations that Darwin made
were patient ones that deserved attention.  The same with Marx.  Economic
imperialism is the dominant force at play in the politics of the world
today, and at it's core is the sad fact that there are two classes.

Unfortunately, people use whatever they can get their hands on to justify
their own ends, and therein lies the problem.  That is why it is necessary
to educate people and tell them to seek information for themselves.
Secondary (tertiary, quaternary) sources don't just paint a particular
picture, they typically have a different agenda.  And it's not that I don't
mind when a person misreads some writing or has a different interpretation
of it.  In fact, I think that quite a bit of interesting art has come from
that.  That doesn't mean that people shouldn't be corrected when they are
blatantly misinformed and are merely reciting from hearsay or just voicing
typical rhetoric.  Have you ever asked yourself exactly what the Communist
movement had in common with Marx's writings? What kind of conditions were
these countries in before their successive revolutions?  Why did they need
to change?  If you have read Marx, you'll find that his writing had very
little to do with the political movement or its results.  You'll probably
also find that it has a lot more to do with the industrial revolution and
the changing economic system.  Also, if you have read the Communist
Manifesto, that's likely the earliest most diluted source of his ideas.
It's not even his most important writing or even his complete work on
economic theory.

Oh, and by the way, I am not, nor have I ever been, a member of the
Communist Party.  I'm a pathetic American enjoying the spoils of my studio
while others toil twelve hours a day for a pittance.  But I don't wear Nike.

Chris
__________________________________________
Christopher Sorg
Multimedia Artist and Instructor
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
http://csorg.cjb.net
csorg@xxxxxxxxx

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