100 KS
· 301
tradictory, and the transfiguration of Karl Marx into some kind of John
Stuart Mill is almost complete.
The last chapter bears the title "Beyond Marxism," but I could
not discover even the outline of such a Beyond, except the statement
that the Marxian system has been dissolved,
because
it has not become
reality, and is entirely perverted in Soviet society as well as in the other
communist states. I have no quarrel with the statement of fact that
present-day communism is not the realization, and is perhaps even the
perversion, of the Marxian conception, but I do not see any justification
for the "because" which makes the statement of fact into a verification
of the thesis. It is worthwhile quoting the last sentences of this chapter:
Marx's critical theory stands and falls with the claim that
human action can bring about the end of 'pre-history.' Unless
this claim is made good, the socialist revolution cannot be
regarded as a radical break with the past. To the pragmatic
outlook of the modern labor movement this conclusion may
come as no great surprise, but it spells the dissolution of the
Marxian system and the end of the eschatological hopes em–
bodied in it. (p. 400)
Accepting the premise that the socialist revolutions which have occurred
do not constitute a "radical break with the past" (there might be
questions on that at least
in
the case of China and Cuba), the only
conclusion at which a "historical view" could arrive is the all too ob–
vious one that pre-history has not yet come to an end. Why this con–
clusion spells the dissolution of the Marxian system is not clear-mainly
because (as Lichtheim himself has convincingly shown) Marxian thought
is not a "system" but a critical theory, and because this theory is not an
"e~hatological"
speculation. Lichtheim here abandons the "historical
view" to which he has committed himself. It would have required
treating the Marxian categories as what they are: historical categories
which try to define tendencies and counter-tendencies within an antagon–
istic society.
There is another thesis in Lichtheim's book, one that is well argued
and demonstrated, with a wealth of material. It stresses, once again,
the contrast between the young and the mature Marx; the latter has
shelved the radical revolutionary politics of his earlier writings (until
about 1850) and adopted "the long view," accepting the growth of
democratic institutions and the rising legitimate power of organized labor
as the framework of his analysis. According to Lichtheim, this trend
culminates in the Inaugural Address of 1864 and finds its codification
in Engels' writings. There is no need here to reopen the familiar con-
