the True and the Good

Elson-

I believe you are conflating the Good and the True in your version of
marxism.  I believe Hume was correct in saying that the Ought cannot be
derived from the Is.  (I also believe, based on the evidence, that it is a
strong human propensity to attempt to do so, regardless.)

Marxist analysis focuses on history as the history of class struggle, on
relations of domination and exploitation.  If accurate, this is analysis
of what IS, what is TRUE.  It is another level of analysis, a moral level,
to say exploitation should be eliminated.  I know many think Marx did not
employ morality in his analysis, but I disagree.  Norman Geras made the
case very well in New Left Review some time ago that Marx DID employ
universal moral judgements throughout his work, despite the fact that he
said otherwise.

So Marx studied the IS of capitalism, and had a powerful view of the OUGHT
of a world without capitalism.  

Back to the assessment of Christian and Islamic "Fundamentalism,"  I think
it is important to dispassionately analyze these movements (as several
recent posts have done) without dismissing them in a flip and superficial
manner:  focus on the Is before moving to the Ought.

For instance, echoing a recent post, if we dismiss populism, whether
religious or secular, as nothing but irrational fanaticism, we will have
no capacity to understand or challenge movements such as Le Pen's in
France, which has a strong base of workers formerly associated with the
CP, or the Christian Right in the U.S., which also has a base with a lower
than average SES and many who are conservative on social issues, but on
the left on economic issues.


RH