<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[the commune]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://thecommune.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[Nathan Coombs]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://thecommune.wordpress.com/author/nathancoombs/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[is marxism just too&nbsp;abstract?]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[In 1965 Louis Althusser opened his famous paean For Marx with a withering reflection on French theoretical culture at the time. He bemoaned the fact that ‘we have spent the best part of our time in agitation when we would have been better employed in the defence of our right and duty to know’.[i] The result of which was ‘the stubborn, profound absence of any theoretical culture’; whereas, he claimed, ‘Marxism should not be simply a political doctrine, a ‘method’ of analysis and action, but also, over and above the rest, the theoretical domain of fundamental investigation’.[ii] For this task Althusser saw as indispensable the role of intellectuals committed to necessary theoretical work.]]></html><thumbnail_url><![CDATA[https://thecommune.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/plato.jpg?w=225&fit=440%2C330]]></thumbnail_url><thumbnail_width><![CDATA[]]></thumbnail_width><thumbnail_height><![CDATA[]]></thumbnail_height></oembed>