[lit-ideas] Re: Marxism and Political Correctness
- From: "Eric Yost" <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 04:44:51 -0500
>> No ism can mandate great literature.
Certainly. However, there was a lot more going on in the "low dishonest
decade" than a few show trials. The USA seemed stuck in a Depression and
capitalism seemed a failure, especially after fiascos like MacArthur's
repression of Hooverville. Throughout the world, from Brazil to
Bulgaria, dictatorships arose. Japan began the imperial expansion it had
planned before 1910.
On one hand Stalin started his mass murder machinery, more and more
gulags, etc., following the same secret police culture Ivan the Terrible
had initiated. The cult of personality for Stalin was in full swing. The
Kulaks were starved to death. Routine purges, eliminating the old
Bolsheviks and anyone who was unlucky enough to "stand out" while the
secret police had a quota of arrests to meet or exceed, had begun.
Statues were put up to children who denounced their parents for hoarding
food. Gigantic monuments, most failures, and most resentment products
aimed at the USA--Magnetic City, The Palace of the Soviets, etc.--were
undertaken at huge cost of life. People were removed from history; for
example, even a book that criticized nonperson Trotsky was banned, since
it mentioned Trotsky.
On the other hand, here come the idealistic and clueless American and
European visitors. They are given closely-guided tours, carefully
guarded lest they see past the Potemkin Society presented to them. They
return from their visits with their prejudices confirmed. Outside
journalists working in the USSR have to limit what they write to remain
in the USSR.
Yes, no "ism" can generate great art. But you may be giving Bunny Wilson
too hard a time here. Few had the clarity of vision of a Zamyatin. Most
saw what they wanted to see.
Even today, the very early Marx still makes some sense as a form of
left-Hegelian protest literature. Critics and academics have to make a
living, so they pick up a few ideas, incongruously, like squirrels
grabbing golf balls, and run with them.
Eric
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