It is impossible to speak seriously about Marxism in the West without incorporating the role of Christianity in each social formation. “Western Marxism has taken a historic distance from the concrete experiences of socialist transition in the Soviet Union, China, Viet Nam, and Cuba.”
I would recommend reading this and sending this to any radlibs/DSA/anarchists you know
I've been working on this idea that liberalism is largely shaped by modern secular Christianity.
For example, liberal environmentalism is driven by individual sin (not recycling) and redemption (buying electric car) and conservatives are seen as individual sinners with no context making bad choices etc.
I think Marx's Capital is about the base, but modern capitalist mythology gains legitimacy through being a mythos actualized through its connection with the base, but isn't actually referential to the base as such.
Like in the era after Marx you have this era of people like Max Weber and so on trying to take what Marx says and bend it in a way that isn't antagonistic to the social relations that are connected to the base, but the social relations of capitalism inherently form an antagonistic contradiction that is simply papered over by liberal/conservative myth making.
Also when I said isn't referential to the base I meant explicitly referential. Although free markets and private property are foundational to liberalism it's rarely emphasized.
Well, I didn't state it explicitly, but my point is that the superstructure, Christianity, interacted with the base, capital, to create new superstructure, liberalism, related to the older superstructure, but shaped by the base.
As a side note, Mao also said that the superstructure can take a dominant role over the base as well, but that it's an exception.
"Some people think that this is not true of certain contradictions. For instance, in the contradiction between the productive forces and the relations of production, the productive forces are the principal aspect; in the contradiction between theory and practice, practice is the principal aspect; in the contradiction between the economic base and the superstructure, the economic base is the principal aspect; and there is no change in their respective positions. This is the mechanical materialist conception, not the dialectical materialist conception. True, the productive forces, practice and the economic base generally play the principal and decisive role; whoever denies this is not a materialist. But it must also be admitted that in certain conditions, such aspects as the relations of production, theory and the superstructure in turn manifest themselves in the principal and decisive role." -Mao On Contradiction
liberalism is largely shaped by modern secular Christianity.
The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity by Eugene McCarraher https://b-ok.cc/book/5288094/3badf7
Far from displacing religions, as has been supposed, capitalism became one, with money as its deity. Eugene McCarraher reveals how mammon ensnared us and how we can find a more humane, sacramental way of being in the world.
If socialists and Wall Street bankers can agree on anything, it is the extreme rationalism of capital. At least since Max Weber, capitalism has been understood as part of the "disenchantment" of the world, stripping material objects and social relationships of their mystery and sacredness. Ignoring the motive force of the spirit, capitalism rejects the awe-inspiring divine for the economics of supply and demand.
Eugene McCarraher challenges this conventional view. Capitalism, he argues, is full of sacrament, whether or not it is acknowledged. Capitalist enchantment first flowered in the fields and factories of England and was brought to America by Puritans and evangelicals whose doctrine made ample room for industry and profit. Later, the corporation was mystically animated with human personhood, to preside over the Fordist endeavor to build a heavenly city of mechanized production and communion. By the twenty-first century, capitalism has become thoroughly enchanted by the neoliberal deification of "the market."
I interesting. Seems like a broader view. Would be interesting to think of conservativism as old testament (interesting link with zionism/conservativism getting along) and Liberalism being new testament with its focus on sin and forgiveness.
Never really connected capital with god. Just about balling, but interesting to think in terms of the trinity. Money as the son, markets as the holy ghost and constitutionalism as the father.
I've been working on this idea that liberalism is largely shaped by modern secular Christianity.
For example, liberal environmentalism is driven by individual sin (not recycling) and redemption (buying electric car) and conservatives are seen as individual sinners with no context making bad choices etc.
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I think Marx's Capital is about the base, but modern capitalist mythology gains legitimacy through being a mythos actualized through its connection with the base, but isn't actually referential to the base as such.
Like in the era after Marx you have this era of people like Max Weber and so on trying to take what Marx says and bend it in a way that isn't antagonistic to the social relations that are connected to the base, but the social relations of capitalism inherently form an antagonistic contradiction that is simply papered over by liberal/conservative myth making.
or something.
deleted by creator
Also when I said isn't referential to the base I meant explicitly referential. Although free markets and private property are foundational to liberalism it's rarely emphasized.
deleted by creator
Well, I didn't state it explicitly, but my point is that the superstructure, Christianity, interacted with the base, capital, to create new superstructure, liberalism, related to the older superstructure, but shaped by the base.
As a side note, Mao also said that the superstructure can take a dominant role over the base as well, but that it's an exception.
"Some people think that this is not true of certain contradictions. For instance, in the contradiction between the productive forces and the relations of production, the productive forces are the principal aspect; in the contradiction between theory and practice, practice is the principal aspect; in the contradiction between the economic base and the superstructure, the economic base is the principal aspect; and there is no change in their respective positions. This is the mechanical materialist conception, not the dialectical materialist conception. True, the productive forces, practice and the economic base generally play the principal and decisive role; whoever denies this is not a materialist. But it must also be admitted that in certain conditions, such aspects as the relations of production, theory and the superstructure in turn manifest themselves in the principal and decisive role." -Mao On Contradiction
deleted by creator
The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity by Eugene McCarraher https://b-ok.cc/book/5288094/3badf7
I interesting. Seems like a broader view. Would be interesting to think of conservativism as old testament (interesting link with zionism/conservativism getting along) and Liberalism being new testament with its focus on sin and forgiveness.
Never really connected capital with god. Just about balling, but interesting to think in terms of the trinity. Money as the son, markets as the holy ghost and constitutionalism as the father.