Sheehan, Helena (2020) Marxism, science and covid-19. In: Pandemonium Lecture Series, 26 July 2020, Online (Zoom)., Jul 1, 2020
What role did science play in this pandemic? Why did some anti-science currents wither while othe... more What role did science play in this pandemic? Why did some anti-science currents wither while others thrived? Were there ideological dimensions to the pattern of responses? What positions were taken by right, left and centre? What was revealed about capitalism in this crisis? And about socialism? What did marxism bring to this scenario?
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On the morning I received an e-mail asking me to write a foreword to this edition, I then scrolled through my Facebook newsfeed to find an update where a young intellectual posted about another young intellectual who lived decades before him: "He erupted into a meeting of the Moral Science Club [Cambridge] with a copy of Materialism and Empirio-Criticism, bubbling over with enthusiasm about it and reading out passages about the class basis of philosophy. Some thought he had gone crazy. Cornforth did not. The scene had made a great impression on him. He went home, read the book and decided to join the CPGB." 1
Why do they still resonate one hundred years after his death?
This is a poem addressing that question.
How is it that classical Marxist authors were able to address such a stunning array of issues? In the call for a recent conference on Engels 1 , organizers suggested possible themes in exploring the legacy of Engels, suggesting class, gender, nature, science, religion, colonialism, capitalism, socialism. Many more could have been added. The same could be said of Marx, Lenin, Bukharin and many more authors. What made it possible for them to encompass such a wide range of themes?
Of course, many people discuss many things, but do they encompass them in a coherent perspective? Quite often, they do not. There is a difference between scatty and systemic thinking, between eclecticism and synthesis, between pluralism and holism, between a ragbag of assorted notions and a coherent and comprehensive world view.
The current wave of interest in disinformation is predicated on a perceived decline in truthfulness, even blatant deception, in public discourse-sometimes called post-truth society. Disinformation studies has emerged in academe as a subdiscipline offering big research funding and fast-track career progression. There are many powerful players pushing this agenda.
On the morning I received an e-mail asking me to write a foreword to this edition, I then scrolled through my Facebook newsfeed to find an update where a young intellectual posted about another young intellectual who lived decades before him: "He erupted into a meeting of the Moral Science Club [Cambridge] with a copy of Materialism and Empirio-Criticism, bubbling over with enthusiasm about it and reading out passages about the class basis of philosophy. Some thought he had gone crazy. Cornforth did not. The scene had made a great impression on him. He went home, read the book and decided to join the CPGB." 1
Why do they still resonate one hundred years after his death?
This is a poem addressing that question.
How is it that classical Marxist authors were able to address such a stunning array of issues? In the call for a recent conference on Engels 1 , organizers suggested possible themes in exploring the legacy of Engels, suggesting class, gender, nature, science, religion, colonialism, capitalism, socialism. Many more could have been added. The same could be said of Marx, Lenin, Bukharin and many more authors. What made it possible for them to encompass such a wide range of themes?
Of course, many people discuss many things, but do they encompass them in a coherent perspective? Quite often, they do not. There is a difference between scatty and systemic thinking, between eclecticism and synthesis, between pluralism and holism, between a ragbag of assorted notions and a coherent and comprehensive world view.
The current wave of interest in disinformation is predicated on a perceived decline in truthfulness, even blatant deception, in public discourse-sometimes called post-truth society. Disinformation studies has emerged in academe as a subdiscipline offering big research funding and fast-track career progression. There are many powerful players pushing this agenda.
https://monthlyreview.org/product/until-we-fall-long-distance-life-on-the-left/
The chapters deal with the various impacts of world capitalism in Ireland, from the revolutionary upheavals of the early twentieth century, to the current economic crash. The individual perspectives of contributing scholars and activists differ substantially; they would not usually be found within the same publication. Nonetheless, they collectively manage to highlight the capitalist character of Irish society, and provide an analysis of its features that is specifically Marxist. They demonstrate that there are alternative ways of looking at Irish history, Irish political economy and the issues currently impacting on the working population and various marginalised or vulnerable groups. They show that the class struggle continues unabated and that progressive social change, now more than ever, requires the development of an organised resistance.