Talk:Socialisme ou Barbarie
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"(Castoriadis) became a Cold War apologist for Western military intervention as the only way such bureaucracies could be defeated."
The phrase "Cold War apologist" when applied to a Left intellectual is definitely not NPOV and may be wholly inaccurate. This is in need of a rewrite, but preferably by someone more knowledgeable about Castoriadis than myself. I know he became critical of anti-Americanism in his later years and took a more nuanced view of the first Gulf War than many in the anti-War movement would have liked, but that in itself hardly makes him a "Cold War apologist".
It should also be noted that the "later years" of Castoriadis' life were well after Socialisme ou Barbarie - perhaps that information should be merged into the Castoriadis biography article.
This article should more strongly emphasize the ideas and activities of Socialisme ou Barbarie during its years of activity. The article needs some mention of other important SOB figures (such as Lyotard), the Pouvoir Ouvrier split, influence upon the Situationists, etc. - Peter Werner - 2005/06/14
The "Cold War apologist" tag presumably results from his 1980 "Facing The War" text. It took a premise that "Russia has become the primary world military power". To sustain this in the context of the visible economic inferiority of the Soviet Union in the civilian sector, he proposed that the society may no longer be dominated by the party-state bureaucracy but by a "stratocracy" - a separate and dominant military sector with expansionist designs on the world. It is not Castoriadis' most durable writing. But as the previous writer said, this has little to do with Socialisme ou Barbarie. It would be useful if some material on this moved out of this article and into the Castoriadis article, which at the moment is very off-balance - covering only his late, wordy books. AllyD 8 July 2005 22:38 (UTC)
