[Welcome ZenPundit readers. A post with charts derived from these notes is also available. Likewise, the original walk without rhythm post. -- tdaxp]

[today was the best day of this class yet. A recent Iraq War vet is now auditing the class. He and I spent a fair amount of time developing a Marxist-Gramscist Theory of Theological Hegemonic Stability, much to the delight of Prof and the bemuzement of most of our fellow students. I will try to turn that into a blog post -- tdaxp]

Socialist and Marxist Approaches to International Relations
circi et panem
stability?
Marxist stability theory? Marxist Commercial Pacifism?
(EU/G7 as example of Marxist anti-Leninist “Ultraimperialism” ?)
Schumpater / Marxist uneven growth
what is the cure for “opium addiction”?
why not an “opium for the burgeious”?

Marxist Methods
private property establishes a state system — but what about midaeval Iceland?
“emancipation” — states exist because we say they do – Marx as constructivist?
Marx as anti-economic-reductionist?
dialecticalism as anti object-subject: anti-science? observer as warrior?
Marxist Theological Stability? “religion isn’t the opium of the masses — it is the masses”
– diversion of the diolectic to immaterial
– Lenin: state is the executive committee of the bougeouis — so Marxist Theocratic Stability?
— … unless the cause is endemic, not agreed, by the rich
— applying Gramsci… Marxist Theological Hegemonic Stability?
— Marxist Structural Theories of the State)
— gives the state partial autonomy; for example, Steel Capitalist v. Auto Capitalists
— “capitalist strikes” like during 1970s?
— or even Randist/Objectivist strike?

Marxist-Leninist Theory of War
– (Lenin’s theory of Imperialism “essentially borrowed from British liberal JA Hobbson”)
– raw materials
– underconsumption / overproduction
– external markets

Marxist-Gramscian Theory of Hegemony
– (Gramsci wrote while in prison in Fascist Italy)
– the idea that an elite can exert power only if it exerts cultural power over social classes
– hegemony as soft power?
– so global hegemony isn’t nation based
– an interpretive theory, not prescriptive (?)
– focuses on temporary hegemon — “historic blocs” (financiers are not industrialists, etc)
– Gramscian Communist strategy community-oriented?
– how would gramsci view a “better” religion as cure / partial cure?

Burkey: “International Relations” problematizes Marxism
– (disagrees with Wallerstein)
– “can’t square any units (communes, states, etc) with stateless society”
– so accepting nations implies accepting multi-unit horizontal diversity — so same thing as “states”?
– Marx /assumes/ state-capitalism interreliance, without backing it up
– capitalism could survive in stateless world
– does “stateless society” mean no external compelling unit or no “hegemonic” regime?
– “stateless society in one state”?
– so “voluntary societies” are conflicting states?
– tribal “early communism” as “stateful statelessness”?
– similarity between church “individual poverty” v. “collective property” monastary debates

Wallerstein
– capitalism is selling for external markets: “means of production” really doens’t matter too much
– so any form of specialization / division of labor is a form of capitalism?
– any sort of society can be externally capitalist
– similar to Maoist/Chinese Communist criticisms of USSR trade with the west
– Wallerstein’s Core / Semi-Peripherary / Peripherary similar to Barnett’s Core / Seam / Gap?