Gm-post 23 Oct class: response to Sally’s 10/23 post.

In response to your post, I basically agree with most of your comments. Marx seems to be a “lynch-pin,” of sorts, the bedrock whose theories have been built upon by countless other philosophers, theorist, and Marxist.
Your first case in point, I concur with in part, comparing the expansion and domination by and of the British Empire as an example of Marx’s statement: “…each new class which puts it self in the place of one ruling before it is compelled, merely in order to carry through its aim, to present its interest as the common interest of all the members of society, that it, expressed in ideal form: it has to give its idea the form of universality, and present them as the only rational, universally valid one” (40). Expansion of the British Empire is a perfect example of Marx’s theory. In India for example, the ideology of the British ruling class was put forward as the law of land and carried out by British military authority. Other examples of this can be seen by other western-European powers in Africa, particularly by the ruling classes of Belgian, France, and Germany as they engrossed themselves over the African Congo. They (the ruling class), it seems, were all in competition for a piece of the African pie.
However, comparing contemporary America with the expansion of the British Empire, I must take exception with. We are not in Iraq to further Democratic ideology. The United States doesn’t care what type of political institution is in place in Iraq just as long as it’s a stable and reliable institution. Don’t forget that we gladly dealt with Saddam for years before we seized power, selling him weapons, chemicals, technology, etc. It wasn’t until he threatened stability in the area, threatening the disruption of oil at free market prices, with his invasion of Kuwait, and subsequent refuses to withdrawal during the first gulf war, that we became righteous.
It’s only because of Saddam instability, his refusal to play ball that he’s out of power. No, the real reason that the United States is in Iraq today and will remain for the foreseeable future is to keep oil flowing at free market prices, which leads to another interesting point. If we woke up in the morning to learn there was a new and miraculous replacement for oil, that oil was now completely obsolete, I’m sure we would be out of Iraq by tomorrow night. Then, the Iraqi people, could discover democracy by themselves, if that’s what they want.