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From: Andrew Herman <ah7301r@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 11:17:23 -0600
Doug Henwood wrote:
> John Ransom wrote:
>
> >Communists have been incredibly puritanical. Stalin's movement to
> >"eliminate the Kulak's as a class"; Mao and Chiang Ching's cultural
> >revolution are both real big examples.
>
> This is deeply unfair to Marxists and Marxism. Why is it that anyone
> who
> generalizes wildly about "postmodernism" is rebuked for doing violence
> to a
> diverse collection of thinkers, but you can get away with the same
> sort of
> recklessness when characterizing Marxists.
He said, "Communists", Doug, not "Marxists". As you point out, there is
a huge difference between Marxism as theory and anallysis and its
institutionalization as a form of power/knowledge in Communist state and
party apparatus. Foucault appreciated the difference, as well.
Andrew Herman
