Against Politics

Toward a depoliticized society

Tom Palmer on G.A. Cohen

Posted on | August 8, 2009 | Comments Off by Aschwin de Wolf

Unlike some of his libertarian colleagues, Tom Palmer does not have a favorable impression of Cohen’s objectives or his personal ethics.  Analytical marxists like Cohen have contributed a lot to demolish orthodox Marxism but they have never stopped looking for new arguments to support most of the same old conclusions, a practice that seems to be at odds with the idea we have of a serious scholar. More regrettably, perhaps, is that Cohen never felt the need to apologize for his support of the Soviet Union. As Palmer writes:

Millions had to die so that Cohen and his rich friends could enjoy “a non-capitalist mental space in which to think about socialism.” Words almost fail me. But not entirely. He should have spent his life begging forgiveness from all of the people who suffered from his pro-Soviet (he spent a good bit of his youth as a Soviet propagandist, which was essentially a family enterprise) and pro-Communist activities.

Tom Palmer’s courageous piece raises a general issue about the political views of academics. Careers are allowed to be destroyed when there is even the most indirect (or fabricated) evidence that a scholar’s work  can be linked to extreme right wing views, but scholars who have supported  communism in theory and practice rarely meet such a fate. As a general rule, they just move on and embrace another “progressive” framework to guide their work.

Category: Philosophy, Politics
Tags: > > > >

Comments

Comments are closed.