KARL MARX IS BACK
Mark Steel, Independent, UK - Sales of Marx's Capital are at an all-time high. . . Most papers have had articles about him in their business sections, commending his analysis of booms and slumps, and he was on the front page of The Times. Soon a Times editorial will begin: "As the global downturn gathers pace, perhaps one economic remedy to be considered by our esteemed guardians is a violent workers' revolution as envisaged by Mister Karl Marx. . . "
A passage from Marx about the insatiable greed of bankers was quoted on Radio 2 one morning by Terry Wogan. For all I know he's doing it every day now, muttering: "Now here's a jolly old lesson from the old boy Karl - about those rascals of the bourgeoisie, it seems they've been robbing us blind all along and no mistake, so let's overthrow the nitwits for a bit of mischief. In the meantime this is 'Surrey with the Fringe on Top'.". . .
But Marx might be surprised at the way he usually appears in these articles, as if he was mostly an analyst. . . As a professional analyst, Marx would have been a disaster. For example, one year after Capital was due, his publishers asked him when it would arrive and he wrote back: "You'll be pleased to know I have begun the actual writing."
A passage from Marx about the insatiable greed of bankers was quoted on Radio 2 one morning by Terry Wogan. For all I know he's doing it every day now, muttering: "Now here's a jolly old lesson from the old boy Karl - about those rascals of the bourgeoisie, it seems they've been robbing us blind all along and no mistake, so let's overthrow the nitwits for a bit of mischief. In the meantime this is 'Surrey with the Fringe on Top'.". . .
But Marx might be surprised at the way he usually appears in these articles, as if he was mostly an analyst. . . As a professional analyst, Marx would have been a disaster. For example, one year after Capital was due, his publishers asked him when it would arrive and he wrote back: "You'll be pleased to know I have begun the actual writing."
posted by TPR | 6:18 PM
3 Comments:
The love affair the corporate press is having with socialism is interesting. Tell the rubes that it's for the greater good when you rob them and give the money to Citi.
actually this is very interesting.... i know dat some guyz are out there analyzing the whole thing..but am really...taking it n a light mood... itz nothing serious for me...but i'll definitely keep a track of it....
Of course, he's back! People don't forget about just how insightful he was about the way capitalism works and doesn't work.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, when everyone was claiming that this was proof that Marx was wrong, I insisted, "Don't you believe a word of it." Capitalism has not changed. All that has happened is that Lenin's revolution, which he said could not survive if the major industrial powers did not follow suit, has failed.
Under the conditions that followed the Bolshevik seizure of power, including the inevitable economic blockade and a bitter civil war during which France, Britain and the US invaded Soviet territory, it is only slightly short of astounding that the Soviet Union became a major industrial power in its own right.
Maybe this time around, we'll get it right.
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