) ut is this not in contradiction with the idea that socialist thought is enlightened, scientific, rational and demystifies the world? And did not capitalism dissolve, in practice, the values which gave a feeling of community to human existence?
Socialism is both the inheritor of rationalism and the Enlightenment and of the Romantic criticism of the philosophy of the Enlightenment and modernity. These two components are present within socialist thought. Ernest Bloch is right when he says that two currents exist within Marxism: a 'cold', purely rational, analytical, merciless, scientific, objective current concerned with what capitalism is, how it functions as a system function and what its contradictions are.
The other current, which he calls 'warm', is based on the principles of hope, utopia and regeneration of the world. These two dimensions are equally necessary and complementary.
A tension exists between them but it is a positive, dialectical tension which must be continually kept under review by Marxism in order to avoid falling into a positivist 'scientificismo' or a sentimental romanticism.
Concretely, in relation to the element of community, the logic of capitalism is the logic of atomisation, of the destruction of communal links, of the isolation of the individual, of the glorification of separation, egoism and utilitarian interests. It is not just ideology but the whole workings of the system which confronts individuals. To return to the example of the motor car; just by entering an avenue, an individual, whatever their subjective views, enters a war of everyone for him or her self.
There are points of resistance. Originally the whole workers' modernism & feminism, Michael Löwy: The responsibility of intellectuals, Phil Hearse: Socialism and 'complex society' from Socialist Outlook, PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU. movement presented a communal alternative to individualism based on values of solidarity and collectively recreating in practice communal relationships. That was the case, for example, with the trade unions that created a more profound human relationship between workers from the same factory: Equally, this can be found in the ideal concept of the revolutionary organisation. Nowadays, the base communities of the Church, neighbourhood associations, women's groups, cultural movements are seeking to become communal alternatives to capitalist individualism.
These communal structures base themselves on, at least to some extent (depending on the country concerned and its traditions) patterns of thought and elements of previous communal memory, looking back to premodern, precapitalist, mainly rural traditions.
In the Third World, where the majority of the population has rural origins this communal potential can be revived by the trade unions, parties, tenants associations, and movements at the base.
These organisations or movements are not simply an association as a result of certain common interests; they are these things but they need to be much more; they must stimulate types of communal relationship, relationships of solidarity. International Marxist Review 14 Defending Marxism today Includes Jesüs Albarracin: Market ideology, Jane Kelly: Post136 pages. Order your copy for just €3 including postage
theory*practice 5 • Can Marxism Survive? • page four anti-capitalist struggles. The task is to ally them with organised