Penn State, Wall Street, the Capitalist politicians, the monsters,

I have been thinking more about Penn State. In particular how the monsters who ran that football program could have watched the vicious abuse of young boys and done nothing to stop it. This abuse now it seems goes back almost two decades. As the exposure continues the monsters like the head coach Patrino lawyer up with high power attorneys and prepare to defend themselves by attacking the young boys and their families. Just like Cain's high power lawyer has warned any woman who is thinking about coming forward against his sexual harassment and abuse to think again about it. An open and deliberate threat. But the issue I am thinking about is this.

Contrary to how things are portrayed by the born again Christians when they attack Marxism I as a Marxist believe there is right and wrong. The born again Christians and fundamentalists of all shapes and sizes attack Marxism for being relativist. That is for never saying that anything is right or wrong in stead accusing us of always saying it depends on the context. And like all stereotypes there can be some truth in this. In the overwhelming amount of cases we face in our lives, in the overwhelming amount of situations, we have to take into account the context and then decide how we think and act. Take the question of killing somebody. I am in general against killing somebody. However in the case of an all out civil war between the classes where working class people would be facing slaughter by the ruling class and their forces of reaction, then i am in favor of defending ourselves and this would mean being prepared to kill. Or to save the life of an innocent person if the only way was to kill a monster then this might have to be done. It is a relative question, the context has to be looked at.

But as with anything this can go too far and this is where in my opinion many of those who claim to be Marxists and do so in a crude fashion do great damage to the scientific method of Marxism and to our movement. Such people give a stick to our enemies to beat us with.

Look at this case at Penn State where a 28 year old assistant coach saw a coach raping a young boy of 10, all he did was tell his dad the next day, and then told the head coach who passed the information on and they all left it there. Nothing happened and the abuse went on. What should these people have done in this case. We are back to right and wrong. There is nothing relative here that should have been taken into account in this situation. This assistant coach should have intervened and said there are no ifs and/or buts involved, there is not relativism involved, there is no context in which this can be seen as right. This is wrong. He should have then physically stopped the rape and should have then spread the information about what was happening at the university far and wide.

We as scientific socialists have to express the rage and anger and repulsion of the majority of people at what they see going on around them in capitalist society. We have to reject the "sure what can you do" garbage which so many express. Anger, action, righteous indignation, outrage, we have to have all these in our quiver in the struggle with which we are involved. We must not seem to be oblivious to what is right or wrong. In this case what was being done to the young boys in Penn State was unconditionally wrong and we have to state this.

Our morality has to be based in general on what is in the interests of the majority, that is the working class. This is the general truth. But we also have to see that our morality to itself remain moral has to be based on acting in a way that does not lower the consciousness of the people with whom we interact and ourselves also. If we act in such a way as to increase the cynicism, the bitterness, the inertia of the working class and people in general then we act in a way that helps this rotten system cling on and degenerate even further and destroy the lives of more and more people.

There are positive and negative tendencies in all of us. Capitalism develops, bases itself on the negative tendencies, greed, cruelty, individualism, helplessness. We have to base ourselves on the positive tendencies, solidarity, willingness to share, generosity, confidence in our ability to lead and act and change things, collective consciousness, this has to be our approach. The big capitalist institutions such as Penn State, Wall Street, the corporations all base themselves on the negative tendencies, unless we see right from wrong, positive from negative and base ourselves on the former we will all be dragged down by this utterly rotten system. We will end up inert while the system rapes the young boy in the shower, inert while the system rapes the people and the species of the planet and the planet itself.

Sean.