Existential angst? (was Re: Deathkingdom +Gottfried & Blicero)

[Paul Mackin]

On Sat, 19 Aug 2000, Mike Weaver wrote:
> 
> Stacy's and Paul's comments seem to me to place perception and meaning only 
> on an individual level.  I'm not well read enough to do more than guess 
> here, but I'm thinking maybe this is where the "God is dead" idea comes 
> in,  meaning on an individual level needing religious belief to sustain 
> it.  The ubiquitous God(s) with a line to each of us individually giving us 
> destination and validating the journey.

I'd say the fairly commonplace position I've been taking might
be, just because "god is dead" it doesn't mean everything is permitted--to
negatively paraphrase a famous Russian. Rather it's necessary to apply
something like Christian morality to certain aspects of our lives even if
there is no foundation for it. Of course this conviction is only an
ideology, standing alongside other ideologies, and perhaps a fairly
individualistic and bourgeois one from a Marxian perspective but it does
partake of the social as well as individual I think.

> There is an alternative to Stacy's nihilism and Paul's ambiguity.  Human 
> reality is an historical  social construct into which each of us is born 
> and any meaning  to be found is going to be generated socially.  Gramsci at 
> one point in his prison notebooks comments on objectivity as a "collective 
> subjective".  That seems spot on to me.  As we peel off the layers of our 
> philosophical onion we find only more collective human assertions and all 
> political/religious/... struggles are concerned with retaining or replacing 
> those assertions as the logics by which we lead our lives.
>          Personally I'm a marxist because I believe that the supercession 
> of capitalism is necessary for the harmonious development of our species, 
> (increasing our ability to be good to each other).  "Socialism or 
> barbarism" remains an inevitable fork in the road IMO.
 
Marxism has some advantages from the social aspect. Socialism as
envisioned would remove the individualism that is an element in
capitalism and presumably advance the social. It's still only theory
however. And capitalism serves many social needs as well. A hell of a
success in many respects though not all. Didn't Marx say as much
somewhere?
 
> > And a
pleasant weekend to all of you.... > 

And to you, Mike.

		P.