Concerning the “Warm Stream” within Marxism

ABSTRACT

Marxism is well known for its two components: a “cold stream” which concerns objective scientific analysis; and a “warm stream” that concerns enthusiasm and hope and leads to commitment to Marxism as a cause. Ideally, they engage dialectically with one another. They are distinct, yet they necessarily interact to produce the richness of Marxism. My focus is primarily the warm stream, which continually reappears when the “cold stream” dominates. With an overwhelming focus on objective scientific analysis and on what is possible in the given circumstances, it risks confusing the final goal for short-term achievement and failing to inspire those who wish to identify with Marxism. At those times we find that the renewal of Marxism comes from the warm stream, with efforts to bring enthusiasm and hope back into Marxism. In order to understand this process, this article analyses some earlier historical examples of such renewal. It begins by dealing with the criticisms of utopian socialism in Marx and Engels, since this had a significant effect on the way the warm stream was subsequently perceived. Then the article analyses the contributions of Anatoly Lunacharsky before the Russian Revolution and Ernst Bloch in Western Marxism. The unexpected dimension of their work was to draw upon the religious revolutionary tradition as one source for the warm stream of Marxism.

KEYWORDS:

• Marxism
• warm stream
• Anatoly Lunacharsky
• Ernst Bloch
• Marx and Engels

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Roland Boer is a research professor at the University of Newcastle, Australia, and Xin Ao Professor of Literary Theory at Renmin University of China, Beijing, China. His research interests concern the intersections between Marxism and religion. Among numerous publications, his most recent are In the Vale of Tears: On Marxism and Theology V (2014) and Idols of Nations (2014).

Notes

¹ Of course, the process of stagnation is characteristic of any political and philosophical project that lasts for some time. A good example is the long history of religions, which go through periods of stagnation and renewal.

² For instance, “The parson Malthus . . . reduces the worker to a beast of burden ‘for the sake of production’ and even condemns him to death from starvation and to celibacy” (Marx [1861–63] 1988, 349).

³ See also: “The clearest of intellects can and should be joined with a warm and responsive heart” (Lunacharsky 1981, 198).

⁴ For a useful, albeit brief, study of Lunacharsky, see Yermakov (1975). Fitzpatrick's work is less interested in Lunacharsky as in the Commissariat for Enlightenment, of which he was in charge (Fitzpatrick 1970).

⁵ On this matter, Lunacharsky relies on Engels and Kautsky (Engels [1850] 1978, [1894–95] 1990; Kautsky [1895–97] 1976a, [1895–97] 1976b; Kautsky and Lafargue [1922] 1977; Kautsky 1897).

⁶ This text is found in the Bible, Acts 2:2:44–45; 4:32–35.

⁷ On hope, Lunacharsky quotes the Apostle Paul from Romans 8:24: “we are saved by hope” (Lunacharsky 1908, 49).

⁸ It is worth noting that Lunacharsky was fully aware of the dangers of religion. He notes again and again that a religion like Christianity has supported one tyrant after another, and that it can easily be oppressive and destructive. Indeed, this reality leads him to the insight that religion is politically ambivalent: the same religion may be both oppressive and liberating.

⁹ Or, as Dühring accused Marx: his theory was “based on this nonsensical analogy borrowed from the religious sphere” (Lenin [1894] 1960, 169).

¹⁰ It is worth noting that Lenin too felt that Second International socialism was stagnating. However, his effort at renewal was to rediscover Hegel's dialectic (he did so in 1914). That rediscovery would lead soon enough to the success of the Russian Revolution.

¹¹ More works on Stalin, especially biographies, are appearing all the time. Among a large field, the best are by Domenico Losurdo and Geoffrey Roberts (Losurdo 2008; Roberts 2006).

¹² Fredric Jameson (2005) has suggested that “utopia” is simply another word for socialism.

¹³ It is worth noting that Lenin too made wide use of the down-to-earth language of the Bible to appeal to peasants and workers in Russia (Boer 2013).