Question

Discuss in detail stephen hicks : from the falsification of marxism to post modernism?

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Answer 1

The falsification of marxism to postmodernism

Stephen is a philosopher who talks about the failures of marxism along with its moral and economical claims. Hicks also talks about how marxism gave rise to postmodernism and how the falsification of marxism gave rise to the postmodern left. In order to understand what this means we'll need to examine the meaning of Marxism, Postmodern Left, and Postmodernism.

Marxism: Simply put marxism is a socio-economic theory that says that workers or proletarians should control the means of production, the property will be equally divided among all citizens and all citizens would earn the same wage. Marxist claims were that capitalism is immoral because it doesn't distribute wealth and resources equally and that the free market economy and perfect competition will lead to a high rate of poverty and inequality.

Post Modernism: Postmodernism, in general, is a general rejection of the modernist movement or the period of enlightenment. Postmodernism questions all of the ideological constructs and beliefs rooted in philosophies about morality & reason. Thus, postmodernism, simply put is anti-modernism. Modernism arrived in the 19th century, during the Industrial revolution while Post Modernism arrived after world war 2.

Hicks talks about the failures of marxism in both their moral as well as economic claims.

Failure of marxism's moral claims

The Marxists claimed that Marxist or socialist/communist societies have the moral high ground because their ideology is rooted in inequality. However, after the death of Stalin, all Marxists, as well as the rest of the liberal democratic world, saw the fate of the citizens of communist Russia under Stalin. Millions of their citizens were put in labor camps and were starved to death. Political dissent wasn't tolerated and opposition parties or ideologies were met with brute force, arrest and torture. Two more events that lead the world to see the moral failures of marxism were the Hungarian Revolution and the Maoist reign in China. Hungary crushed political dissenters while the fate of the Chinese citizens under Mao was no better than those in the Soviet Union.

Failure of marxism's economic claims

Marxists also claimed that the liberal democratic capitalist societies would eventually collapse because of increasing inequality and that the rich would become richer and that the poor would become poorer. However, the reality was that most liberal democratic counties in North America and Western Europe were being high levels of prosperity. While the rich got richer, so did the poor and the middle class. Since the dawn of post World War two era, almost a billion people were lifted from poverty and made their transition in the lower and upper-middle classes.

Marxists coming into terms with the realities of marxism

Since most of the events after world war, 2 took place in the information age where radio, print and television were widely available, the failure of marxism's moral and economic claims along with failure of marxists states. Hicks makes a point that the once the marxist left were confronted with the truth, they couldn't deny the failures of marxism. However, their ideology was deeply entrenched into their identity. A failure of marxism would result in a loss of identity for the marxist left. In an effort or an attempt to hold on to the marxist ideology's moral and economic clams, they began falsifying its success from n ideological standpoint and refuse to part with it. They would deny reason and proof by making abstract claims that the failures were a product of western propaganda. By doing so they were able to falsify marxism and led to the post modern left, which is a more reformed version of socialism. Its important however to not that the postmodern left is different from post modernism. Post modernism in itself is a rejection of all modernist ideas including marxism.