Caveat and Addenda

Further to that thing on Marxism from the last post...

1) The last paragraph is assuming either of those actions -- ending economic exploitation or dismantling just about all systems of power and exploitation -- is possible. I realize that's a huge assumption and nobody's done it yet. (Hunter-gatherer society is essentially free of exploitation, but nobody seems to have managed to return to that ideal yet, either by literally returning to the pre-modern or coming up with some postmodern decentralized exploitation-free community -- tantalizing hints nonwithstanding). But of course, just because something hasn't been done yet, doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

2) Marx didn't just create a powerful idealogy. He created a powerful ideology that was explicitly violent, and that bought into the idea that 'the means justify the end.' This ideology gave evil people a powerful excuse to kill and oppress others -- and believe they were doing good! Like other poisonous ideologies, it clearly defined almost anyone that disagreed with them as 'the enemy' -- the enemy of peace, justice, freedom, etc.

3) This was not just all theoretical. Marx himself put his ideas into practice in authoritarian ways -- witness how he seized control of the pre-existing communist movement, and especially the First International. The First International was created to unite socialists of all kinds and create solidarity between them across national boundaries. Of course, by the time it was done, anarchists, labour unions, and just about any other socialist other than Marxist communists had been forced out. Marx's main opponent in the First International, the anarchist Bakunin, predicted that if Marx's followers ever took power they would be as bad as the rulers they replaced, and commented that "Freedom without socialism is privilege and injustice, but socialism without freedom is slavery and brutality."