Dondoolee:
It really says something when I, a sixteen year old who has had no economic education or experience outside of a year and a half of on/off personal study, can tell how full of bullshit this 60-something “Marxist” really is. He proves to be a fourth-rate polemicist, and barely that. He doesn’t even really connect Event A to Event B, he just mouths off some numbers and events, and then cries out “The Buorgeois!” in the same manner a colonial American hundreds of years ago (before capitalism! We are undoubtedly reaching the height of society through Marx) would cry out “Witch!” He doesn’t even constitute as a Marxist, as already stated. He doesn’t need to develop a single reasoned thought of his own, he will be manufactured by “proletariat” society. He is nothing but the product of collective determinism.
I know one may claim my own post lacks specific point-by-point analysis and refutation-- but he himself has just about failed to push anything forward for me to refute. His email is void of any organized, substantial thought or opinion… but what do I know? I am poisoned by the bourgeoisie vice of plunder and exploitation. I exist only to strip you of your independence.
Welcome to the wonderful world of the fashionable left, probably one of my bigger pet peeves in life. As a Stirner fan you perhaps would be aware of such Marxist drivel starting with Marx’s “attack” on Stirner in “The German Ideology”. It would be funny if people didn’t take it so seriously and then force their cause on you.
I’m well aware of the sort of drivel that spews forth from the followers of such “trendy” and shallow ideologies-- from both sides. I owe much to the Austrian School simply because it saved me from the political and ideological nihilism (and as true with most nihilism, it leads to depression). I have yet to read The German Ideology, though I have an interest in doing so. From the excerpts I have read though, it does seem like the usual Marxist tradition of calling people you disagree with “poopieheads”.
Naturally I think “libertarians” (of all colors-- minarchists and market anarchists alike) are more critical of American Conservatism/the Republican Party more than any left organization ever could be… simply because their posturing succeeds in “discrediting” us. When Glenn Beck claims to be a libertarian or when Reagan says “I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism”… how else could individuals like us act?
To be honest I have only read excerpts from “The German Ideology” as well, and have the same conclusions as you so far. Unfortunatly the 500+ page “criticism” is probably somewhat essential reading for a Stirner fan due to the impact it has had. To many this is the critique that is the definitive critique. Just one more reason to hate Marx and the Marxists he duped.
If interested other critiques of Stirner that I am aware of are, the ones addresed by Stirner in his article “Stirner’s Critics”, Martin Buber addresses Stirner in the book “Between Man and Man” (unfortunatly this is not on the internet for free, but it can be bought in most major bookstores at a reasonable price), and a rather curious argument by libertarian Robert Lefevre (link at the bottom of this page)
http://tmh.floonet.net/articles/minusone.html