Word: marxisms
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...believe (as many do) that Lukacs is the figure who speaks the most interesting or plausible form of Marxism today, much less that he is (as he has been called) "the greatest Marxist since Marx." But there can be no doubt that he has a special eminence and claim to our attention...
...result there are three Communisms in the world today. The virulent Chinese variety would infect the world with "wars of national liberation." The Russian brand has graduated from the minor leagues of guerrilla warfare, and wields vast military and economic power in hopes of winning the world to Marxism through example. The Red states of Eastern Europe have developed a milder, more "relaxed" strain, one better suited to their lack of economic and military muscle. Fragmented by history and welded by ideology, they have arrived at an almost dialectical synthesis of the tensions tearing at them: nationalist, neutralist Communism...
Whatever their successes or failures at home, the generals have already proved universally bad news to the Communists. But not for ideological reasons; in Ghana, they despise Marxism only because it was the creed of the despised Nkrumah. The soldiers are not necessarily "conservatives." Nevertheless, they have all been eager to get on good terms with the West; in Ghana, the Central African Republic and Dahomey, they have sent home large delegations of Chinese and Russians...
Anyone with even a superficial knowledge of existentialism and Marxism can sense a basic incompatibility between the two dogmas. Jean-Paul Sartre is making a valiant attempt to embrace them both. The Condemned of Altona--written a few years before the Critique of Dialectical Reason, Sartre's futile attempt at reconciliation--reflects the tension that has resulted. To this philosophical mixture is added a complicated plot and allegory on the Algerian War, which was raging when the play was written. (The name of the hero, a former Nazi officer who was the "Butcher of Smolensk" is Frantz, rhymes with France...
...pattern of Marxist influence is also present in the structure of the play as a whole. Frantz, like Geotz of The Devil and Good Lord and Hugo of Dirty Hands, is liberated by his choice to face life as it is, which for Sartre meant choosing Marxism. "Going downstairs" is a perfect symbol for the acceptance of political participation by so many of Sartre's other characters, and suicide always follows their conversion as it does Frantz's. Yet Sartre still clings to both philosophies. For Frantz in the end escapes mauvaise-foi, his refusal to accept the reality...