Just outside of Seattle at the Boeing plant the strike was on. All seemed to be going well. The strikers were out enforce and had been joined by numerous revolutionary leftist groups. Newspapers were sold, conversations struck up with workers who were receptive and the rumor was that most of their demands would be conceded. Things couldn’t have been going more smoothly.
Elizabeth had just finished telling a striking worker about her organization. He had been receptive and had wanted information on when a meeting was next taking place so that he could sit in. She was in a good mood. It wouldn’t last.
From within the crowd a greying man came up to her.
Steve: Liz! They’re at it again.
Elizabeth: What?
Steve: John. He’s trying to recruit a worker using dialectics. The guy looks confused as fuck and John just keeps on blabbing.
Elizabeth: Again? Lead the way, enough is enough.
The two of them went off into the crowed. A short distance later they saw John holding a newspaper and talking to a very confused looking worker.
John: ...which is what we call the negation of the negation see.
Worker: I don’t know. It sounds kinda like you’re talking out of your ass.
Elizabeth: Well put. That nonsense does sound like he’s talking out of his ass.
John: Oh God.
Elizabeth: No, no it’s just me.
John: Liz can’t you see I’m trying to talk to this guy. Can’t you just go talk to someone else? I really don’t want to hear your bullshit today.
Elizabeth: Not while you keep talking that mystical gibberish.
John: That “mystical gibberish” as you call it is Marx’s science of dialectics! Seriously, I don’t know how you can be a Marxist and not accept the method that pervades his work.
Steve: And just because Marx said it you take it unquestioningly? Really, all of Marx’s theories can be derived from basic scientific method. No dialectics is required. If he bought that theory he was mistaken.
Elizabeth: Anyway, you have no reason to really believe that Marx accepted or used dialectical materialism.
John: Oh really? What about what Engels said? He claimed that Marx agreed with him.
Elizabeth: Sure, Engels claimed that. That doesn’t make him right. Perhaps you can tell me where it was that Marx outlined his method?
John: That’s easy. I’ll give you two places. The German Ideology and Das Kapital. That’s where you can find his method.
Elizabeth: That’s not right. In The German Ideology Marx set up historical materialism not dialectical materialism. I know that you know there is a difference. And he actually never mentions dialectical materialism in Kapital.
John: Even if he doesn’t explicitly say it, I know that Kapital has dialectical materialism as its undercurrent.
Elizabeth: Well then you had better take up your case with Marx because he seems to have a different opinion about his work.
John: What on earth do you mean?
Elizabeth: I mean in the afterword to the second edition of Kapital Marx laid out his method. Well, technically, he didn’t lay out his method, what he did was cite reviews whose views he endorsed. According to him his method is similar to the English economists. In fact, he goes on to quote a lengthy review of his method. Guess what it contains.
John: What?
Elizabeth: It contains an explanation of historical materialism. There is no mention of any dialectical concepts! It reads, in many ways, like the scientific works of Aristotle and the Scottish materialists. You would think that if it were oh so important that Marx would have mentioned it. Of course, he could be fucking with you.
John: Well I also know that afterward. He also says in it that his is a disciple of Hegel, the father of dialectics. And he calls that method the dialectical method!
Elizabeth: Maybe you should learn to read. First off, Marx calls that method the dialectical method like you say. That means that he accepts historical materialism without the mystical nonsense as his dialectical method. And second, Marx says that because people were treating Hegel as a dead dog he avowed himself a disciple of Hegel. That’s in the past tense. Further, he is pointing out that only because Hegel is being treated as a dead dog that he avowed himself a disciple. Marx was an iconoclast, he liked being contrary. He was messing with people. Anyway, if you read the whole quote he claims that he uses Hegel’s terminology to tease in Kapital, even in the chapter on value. He’s just fucking with everybody.
John: Well maybe you really ought to try to take Marx seriously.
Elizabeth: I am. You don’t.
John: What’s his method then?
Elizabeth: We already went into this. He is a historical materialist.
John: I don’t buy it.
Elizabeth: Well I’m not selling. I’m distributing based on need to the best of my ability.
John: Even if you don’t think that Marx held dialectical beliefs-
Elizabeth: Which he didn’t.
John: -you still can’t deny dialectics. I can prove them to you.
Elizabeth: Please do so. I’m soooo excited.
