Does the Critique of the Purity Fetish Imply the Rejection of Communist Principles?
Carlos L. Garrido
Abstract
This paper revisits and further develops the critique of the "purity fetish" introduced in The Purity Fetish and the Crisis of Western Marxism, situating it in relation to the mainstream critique of ideal theory, particularly as articulated by Charles W. Mills. It argues that both critiques converge in rejecting forms of abstraction that detach normative ideals from concrete historical and material conditions. However, while the critique of ideal theory exposes how idealization legitimizes existing structures of domination by ignoring real-world injustices, the critique of the purity fetish reveals how abstract commitments to idealized communist standards can lead to the dismissal of actually existing socialist and anti-imperialist movements for failing to meet those standards immediately. The paper further contends that this critique does not entail a rejection of communist principles. Rather, it defends a dialectical understanding in which the communist ideal is preserved as a guiding horizon, while its realization is grasped as a contradictory, historical process unfolding through imperfect material conditions. Based on a Marxist-Leninist and Hegelian framework, the article emphasizes the dialectic of communism as the real movement of history and simultaneously as the riddle of history solved. Ultimately, the critique of the purity fetish is presented not as an abandonment of principles, but as a necessary corrective to abstract idealism, enabling a praxis-oriented, historically grounded approach to revolutionary transformation.
Keywords
Communism, Dialectical Materialism, Ideal Theory, Marxism–Leninism, Purity Fetish
