paul secor Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 If this statement - "In 1994, he shocked viewers when, in an interview with Michael Ignatieff on the BBC, he said that the deaths of millions of Soviet citizens under Stalin would have been worth it if a genuine Communist society had been the result." - from The New York Times obit -is accurate - he was either crazy, senile, or someone completely lacking basic humanity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Garrett Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 Teen vigil at Hobsbawm house Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Gould Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 If this statement - "In 1994, he shocked viewers when, in an interview with Michael Ignatieff on the BBC, he said that the deaths of millions of Soviet citizens under Stalin would have been worth it if a genuine Communist society had been the result." - from The New York Times obit -is accurate - he was either crazy, senile, or someone completely lacking basic humanity. Well he was a committed Marxist. And they find ways to excuse the most appalling mass murderers in history when they are on their side ... Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Fidel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllenLowe Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 (edited) actually, most Marxists I've known - those with any real understanding of the theory - distance themselves significantly from Lenin, Stalin, et al. We (meaning me and friends of mind on the Left who cite Marx) argue over certain material interpretations of history - and I do think, btw, that they have been too slow to deal with totalitarian manifestations of the system - but in my post-60s NYC experience there is a distinct difference between the old un-changing Stalinists and the newer Left. Though certainly I encountered plenty of stupidity in the New Left's somtimes naively charitable attitudes toward both Fidel and Ho Chi Minh. But even Marxism can be a more nuanced theory, accepted in part by sharp politicos like Irving Howe and Michael Harrington, who were committed and actively anti-communists (unlike, say, Lillian Hellman, a complete and utter hypocrite who went to the grave without ever disavowing her old Stalinist leanings. Or ex-Communists like Elia Kazan or Max Easton or Irving Kristol, who just took their old left-fascist-anti-democratic leanings and brought them into alignment with the Republican party). Edited October 4, 2012 by AllenLowe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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