Sunday 15 May 2011

In Lieu of an Introduction

I don't have a manifesto - nothing so grand. I don't have a list of specific reforms or personal grievances, nor a sweeping new theory or program of strategic proposals.

What I have is a web of unanswered questions after a decade of calling myself a marxist. You could call it a crisis of faith, a kind of burnout, or just another personal journey by blog.

I'd call it frustration. I've run out of patience - with the baseless assertions, inconsistency, evasions, pseudotheory and bullying of marxist leaders and intellectuals. That, and the general failure of marxism itself.

For a theory which promises so much, it seems to deliver so much in peripheral areas - psychology, art, linguistics, history, sociology - and so little in its own target area - effective political action.

Marxism looks like it should be great, but it's a joke. I want to know what went wrong, and what elements in marxism itself contribute to its sorry state. I want to know if its successes are real or just so much hot air - and whichever it is, why.

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