Doug,
>Alex wrote:
>
>>Have you ever heard of Stalin's purges? It's not that difficult to put him
>>at the same table with Hitler.
>>
>>Just something to think about.
>
>Jesus H. Christ, since when did Stalin become synonymous with Marxism?
You are right Doug, Stalin isn't synomnymous with Marxism and I do not want
to make this conclusion. I just thought that it was important to remember
that Stalin's autrocities were committed under the guise of Marxist
ideology, during a totalitarian socialist regime whose structures are
outlined in Marx's, et al work. Perhaps it has something to do with
Marxism's, or maybe we need to think of it as communism's tendancy to
submerge individual identity into that of a group that is led by an
authoritarian "father-leader." And I'm sure it has something to do with
Russia's history...it's very hard to pin it all on one factor.
>Oh, and just what was specifically racist about Stalin's purges?
Forgive my ignorance, but I believe that Stalin did target his genocidal
purges at specific ethnicities although I do not know which. I'm sure
someone out there who has access to a history book or encyclopedia (or
someone who can draw upon there own knowledge) will be able to tell us which
ethnic groups were devestated. If not, I will do my best to find the answer
by Tuesday of next week.
By the way, how do you distinguish race and ethnicity?
>since the U.S. was founded on
>genocide and slavery, can we say these are synonymous with "liberalism"?
>
I wonder if liberalism's focus on the individual (a European individual,
that is) may have had something to do with its own genocidal tendancies.
Librarilism, on the other hand celebrates the indivdiual's identity over the
group (although who "fits" the definition of an individual has always
varied...). Native American children were often forceably integrated into
US Euro-American society so that their individual soul could be saved. Also
remember that one man didn't direct the autrocities of slavery and genocide,
as was the case with Stalin and Russia.
>We
>can play lots of these sorts of games -
And when
>Trotsky criticized Stalinism, was he doing so out of anti-Marxism?
I don't know, what do you think?
>Doug
A side note from an early post by I'm not sure who:
>"It is arguable that this argument about the relationship between purity
>and the social goes back a long way in European intellectual arguments -
>to Durkheim's views of the conscious collective and the role of
>ethnicised solidarity in the maintenance of social cohesion."
Might we go even further back to JJ Rousseau? Although he never explicitly
mentioned ethnicity in "Of the social Contract", it does seem that his
contract depends on a ethnically homogeneous society.
Thanks,
Alex
>Alex wrote:
>
>>Have you ever heard of Stalin's purges? It's not that difficult to put him
>>at the same table with Hitler.
>>
>>Just something to think about.
>
>Jesus H. Christ, since when did Stalin become synonymous with Marxism?
You are right Doug, Stalin isn't synomnymous with Marxism and I do not want
to make this conclusion. I just thought that it was important to remember
that Stalin's autrocities were committed under the guise of Marxist
ideology, during a totalitarian socialist regime whose structures are
outlined in Marx's, et al work. Perhaps it has something to do with
Marxism's, or maybe we need to think of it as communism's tendancy to
submerge individual identity into that of a group that is led by an
authoritarian "father-leader." And I'm sure it has something to do with
Russia's history...it's very hard to pin it all on one factor.
>Oh, and just what was specifically racist about Stalin's purges?
Forgive my ignorance, but I believe that Stalin did target his genocidal
purges at specific ethnicities although I do not know which. I'm sure
someone out there who has access to a history book or encyclopedia (or
someone who can draw upon there own knowledge) will be able to tell us which
ethnic groups were devestated. If not, I will do my best to find the answer
by Tuesday of next week.
By the way, how do you distinguish race and ethnicity?
>since the U.S. was founded on
>genocide and slavery, can we say these are synonymous with "liberalism"?
>
I wonder if liberalism's focus on the individual (a European individual,
that is) may have had something to do with its own genocidal tendancies.
Librarilism, on the other hand celebrates the indivdiual's identity over the
group (although who "fits" the definition of an individual has always
varied...). Native American children were often forceably integrated into
US Euro-American society so that their individual soul could be saved. Also
remember that one man didn't direct the autrocities of slavery and genocide,
as was the case with Stalin and Russia.
>We
>can play lots of these sorts of games -
And when
>Trotsky criticized Stalinism, was he doing so out of anti-Marxism?
I don't know, what do you think?
>Doug
A side note from an early post by I'm not sure who:
>"It is arguable that this argument about the relationship between purity
>and the social goes back a long way in European intellectual arguments -
>to Durkheim's views of the conscious collective and the role of
>ethnicised solidarity in the maintenance of social cohesion."
Might we go even further back to JJ Rousseau? Although he never explicitly
mentioned ethnicity in "Of the social Contract", it does seem that his
contract depends on a ethnically homogeneous society.
Thanks,
Alex