Kalecki on Obstinate Ignorance.

[A]

Referring to the possibility of achieving full employment through government intervention, Michał Kalecki writes:

“This suggests that there is a political background in the opposition to the full employment doctrine, even though the arguments advanced are economic. That is not to say that people who advance them do not believe in their economics, poor though this is. But obstinate ignorance is usually a manifestation of underlying political motives.” (here)

Replace “full employment doctrine” with “Marxism” and “arguments advanced are economic” with “arguments advanced are economic and philosophical (sic)” and you get this example of obstinate ignorance (note the date).

And -- this is the detail -- it wasn't because nobody tried to explain, patiently, in detail, with civility, his mistakes, over and over and over again. That doesn't work.

There's something actually instructive in this situation, however. This seems to be a frequent pattern in anti-Marxist "thought": these guys first get their conclusion ("I hate Marxism, aaargh!") and it's only then that they search for an argument to justify the conclusion.

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But enough of being serious. To close in an appropriate note, as today is Saturday, an old favorite:

This march is named "Entrance of the Gladiators" and was composed by Julius Fucík (believe it or not: between the C and the K there is an I!!!).


Image Credits:
[A] "Axidunce cartoon - Damaged tools spell danger”. 1941 - 1945. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park. File in the public domain. Wikipedia.