Threaded index     Date index     FAQ


Re: Some Wilhelm Reich

Posted by diogenes on 2024-July-18 12:06:51, Thursday
In reply to Some Wilhelm Reich posted by Pharmakon on 2024-July-18 01:01:14, Thursday

That's quite interesting. I've read a great deal of secondary literature on Reich, but, alas, have not read the primary texts. I think Marxists tend to underestimate biology in their zeal to ascribe everything to mutable social conditions.

I tend to think that it is wildly optimistic to regard nationality as a contingent social phenomenon, for example. 176 years after Marx dismissed the force of nationality in the Communist Manifesto as a rapidly vanishing anachronism, the whole globe is divided into sovereign territorial states, almost entirely based around the nation.

What if humans are tribal animals, tending to divide the world into friend and foe, us and them? This is where Huntington's perspective is useful, because he argues that wars tend to break out along civilisational fault lines. It explains why people defend Israel whilst denouncing Russia, because they see both Ukraine and Israel as 'us', whilst the Russians and the Arabs are seen as aliens.

Does this doom us to war and ultimately annihilation? I hope not, but I tend these days to rest my hopes on the fact that, 150 years or so from now, humans will be sharing the planet with our silicon progeny who will be vastly our superior across all cognitive tasks, and who, one assumes, will guide and control us. In the meantime, we might just about avoid catastrophe if the West accepts the reality of multipolarity and participates in the building of a new global security structure, based on Huntington's rules for ensuring international peace.

I am not at all sure that the family is a contingent social phenomenon either. The notion that parents have no natural emotional tie to their own offspring strikes me as a little far fetched. And the alternative to the family tends to be the state, so that every erosion of the family tends towards uniformity of opinion, values and outlook. The kind of family I would ideally like to see is one that is embedded in wider social networks, but this would require economics to be subordinate to society, rather than (as under capitalism) vice versa.

diogenes

Follow ups:

Post a response:

Nickname:

Password:

Email (optional):
Subject:


Message:


Link URL (optional):

Link Title (optional):


Add your sigpic?

Here are Seven Rules for posting on this forum.

1. Do not post erotica or overly-detailed sexual discussions.
2. Do not request, offer, or post links to illegal material, including pictures.
3. Don't annoy the cogs.
4. Do not reveal identifying details about yourself or other posters.
5. Do not advocate or counsel sex with minors.
6. Do not post admissions of, or accuse others of, potentially illegal activities.
7. Do not request meetings with posters who are under age 18.

Posts made to BoyChat are subject to inclusion in the monthly BoyChat Digest. If you do not want your posts archived in the BC Digest, or want specific posts of yours removed after inclusion, please email The BC Digest.