To: K-list
Recieved: 2001/08/12 13:43
Subject: Re: [K-list] Kundalini Psychosis
From: Bestpoet
On 2001/08/12 13:43, Bestpoet posted thus to the K-list:
<<Often very sweet, spiritual people get the idea that we need to work to end war and poverty and "Save" everybody. Carl Marx had some sweet ideas about this called communism. The result was the horrendous oppressions of Stalin and plenty of war and oppression.
Percyval,
Thanks for that essay on Kundalini psychosis. It was most interesting. I would however take a little issue with the above paragraph. Marx's main work was an analysis of capitalism. He had some ideas about what socialist and communist societies might look like, but he was concerned with being a "scientist", and scientists, in his view could only study was was present. He thought it was impossible to predict exactly what socialism would look like, because it would have to be a negotiation between theory/practice/results as it evolved. He thought that capitalism was a necessary stage between feudalism and socialism, because a society needed the industrialist buildup in order to facilitate socialism.
He saw socialism as evolving naturally out of capitalism, and communism evolving naturally out of socialism. His cry to the working classes was that they could speed up the process by becoming aware and organized. He didn't approve of the Russian Revolution entirely, because he felt it was forcing socialism to evolve from feudalism without the capitalism stage.
In his view, socialism was goods would be distributed according to each person's labor, not their heritage or social position or amassed capital.
Communism, a higher stage, would have goods distributed to each according to their need.
It also should be pointed out that there wasn't LESS terror and oppression under the Czar's rule in Russia. My own grandparents fled the Czar because the Jewish people there were being subjected to pograms, rapes and plunder. The above paragraph makes it sound like Marx's ideas were responsible for horrible wars and oppression, when in fact, The Soviet Union just continued in a long, established tradition of wars and oppression. They never established a true socialism, just as China has never established a true communism.
And, it was Marx's ideas that generated worker awareness in capitalist countries, which inspired unionizing and those ideas and the work of those unionists are why we have a five-day workweek, and 8-hour workday, minimum wage and health benefits as employees today. Also why there are child labor laws, etc. Much good came from Marx's work.
I do believe that capitalism will either evolve into fascism or some new kind of economic system that employs the best ideas of capitalism, socialism and communism.
As you can see, I'm quite fond of Marx, though he got some stuff wrong, he did a great job for his historical era. Much has been done in his name he wouldn't approve of, just as "democracies" support many totalitarian regimes because it's good for capitalism. His ideas shouldn't be confused with what happened in his name.
It's true, he was a terrible poet, and even his wife told him to stick to philosophy. But he was greatly concerned in wealth being measured in the well being of a society's citizens, all it's citizens, and not being measured in the gross national product. I'm all for that.
Then there's the old adage, which is probably why capitalism and communism haven't yet resulted in an entirely happy populace:
Under capitalism, it's man against man. Under communism, it's the other way around.
I believe a happy society takes more than economic and technological evolution. It requires emotional and spiritual evolution. And doesn't it seem like the last 100 years have brought on a ton of that, though we still have far to go?
Barg
http://www.kundalini-gateway.org
DISCLAIMER!
Home | Archive Index | Search the archives | Subscribe
K. List FAQ | Kundalini FAQs | Signs and Symptoms | Awakening Experiences | K. list Polls | Member Essays | Meditations | List Topics | Art Gallery | Cybrary | Sitemap | Email the moderators.
symbol.