Will It Ever be Possible to Revisit Karl Marx
Marx was one on the world's greatest thinkers. He was not religious so he is not included seminary reading lists. He was not a political leader so he is not in that group. He also was not the complete basher of capitalism as he is so often characterized.
He realized there was a place for some private business was not interested in the ideology of private ownership. What absorbed him was the nature of humans, what motivated them and what their inherent weaknesses were.
Marx was always quite poor, his books banned in many places in the world. He also suffered physically from various ailments. He commanded no armies or appealed to any voters--held no public office. From all of that came a man of powerful ideas so important they are yet today both promoted and debunked around the world.
He wrote about the human weakness for excesses in money and power. Societies need to be structured to hold back these excesses. The capitalist, we wrote, has no internal warning light telling him he has taken too much from the value contributed by workers. The passion to take more and more will lead to a revolution where workers take back the value they produced.
It would be helpful if Karl Marx could be studied today without the cloud of suspicion hanging over head. To teach Marx is to be accused of political indoctrination.
Marx could see the internal dilemma of conservative pro business ideology. He live during the industrial revolution when massive numbers of people left the country side for cities. Conservatives talked up traditional customs and values while preaching humans should do whatever motivates them. Emptying the country side meant doing away with traditional values.
Much of what Marx wrote about we see yet today.
Never mind that those who implemented Marxism were responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people and the destruction of economies. Economic destruction means loss of adequate health care, loss of nutrition, loss of educational opportunities, and a miserable life.
ReplyDeleteThe correct spelling is shtick. A ditz would spell it schtick.
Don't you have a riot to join, a cop to murder or a business to loot and then burn?
Matt Noah August 29, 2020 at 7:08 PM, “Don't you have a riot to join, a cop to murder or a business to loot and then burn?”
DeleteTake your meds Matt.
Matt--"..implemented Marxism were responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people and the destruction of economies.."
DeleteYou misspoke there. That was the Crusades. We can add burning and plundering to list.
you should know better than to say stupid shit like this. no ten million during the Crusades. The Bolsheviks, one way or the other, killed 20 million or so. not bad for a day's work in the workers' Paradise. BTW get out a good history book and read up on the Crusades.
DeleteUnknown--So the Crusades did not kill and plunder. News to me.
ReplyDeleteof course they did. we know about 1099 and all that, no need to remind us. but any reasonably objective history would help to put the whole affair in perspective. but for you, I suppose, perspective is just another empty Latinate word. BTW did you know that the Muslims were at the gates of Vienna in 1529 and again in 1683. and did you know about the Ottomans and their genocidal wars against the Armenian Christians. get a grip, man. back to old Karl: he was long dead when Lenin et al took power in Russia. he probably would not have approved of what was done in his name. but it was nonetheless done in his name.
DeleteUnknown "of course they did."
DeleteSo the Crusades' killing, burning and plundering was relatively kinder to their enemies than were the Bolsheviks. I say it was a draw.
you seem to like moral equivalency arguments. so here are a few: was our bombing of civilians in Germany and Japan during WWII any worse or better than the Crusades. If you recall we did it quite deliberately. as in the fire raids on Tokyo (100K in one nite as I recall) or Dresden (50-60K in one nite). I could go on and on and on. but a question: is genocide against an innocent population (as in the Ukrainean famine) somehow worse the atrocities of war? something for you to ponder (if you are of a mind to ponder this or anything else theses days). as to the atheistic preoccupation with the Crusades: get over it.
ReplyDeleteUnknown 1:07 "Is genocide against an innocent population...?"
ReplyDeleteGood question and good post. As to "the atheistic preoccupation with the Crusades" please recall Matt brought deaths from the Bolsheviks. I merely pointed to the Crusades. The point of my blog was that Marx himself did not attack or kill anyone. He had something to contribute in the history of philosophical thinking but it is drowned out by cold war politics. Western society mostly is unable to study Marx without throwing in politics.
no Marx did not kill anyone. but he certainly set in motion a movement that led directly to the killing of a lot of people (maybe a 100M all together). (makes the Crusades look like a child's game, does it not?). as to the study of Marx, many people study him with a fair amount of impartiality. and many point out the flaws in his thought. there's Marx and Hegel. Marx and Rosseau. Marx and the French Reign of Terror. lots to study, there.
ReplyDeleteBack to the Present. It's not Marx as such that's the issue at hand. It's Cultural Marxism and its progeny. I emphatically recommend that you look into the roots of BLM, the Antifa and the various other movements that have spawned today's riots, etc. And that have aroused the counter movements that seem willing to go to the barricades in opposition to the neo-Marxists. But then maybe you already know a lot about cultural Marxism: many of your posts suggest a lot of the cultural Marxist point of view.
ReplyDeleteal Marxism
Unknown "It's Cultural Marxism and it progeny."
ReplyDeleteHere you are entering a rabbit hole. What about the violent brand of Christianity? Start with the crusades. During the Vietnam war there was a common utterance of very Christian soldiers, "Kill a Communist for Christ." I'm reading a book about backroom events leading up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. President W "prayed a lot" and talked of "redemption." This is all fun to talk about but some clear delineation of good religion or good philosophy and bad are hard to come by.
So the Japanese were inventing a new car, and they didn't have a name for it. They decided to have a German create a name for the new car, since they were such great thinkers. The German thinker asked them how soon they needed it. They said they needed it in two days. He said; "Dat soon?"
ReplyDeleteso they may have said kill a commie for Christ. Ok, maybe they did. lots of other combatants probably said kill the gooks, the SOBs, the bastards. kill as many as you can, blow their brains out, whatever. that's war baby.
ReplyDeleteUnknown -- I never heard "Kill a gook for Christ." Must have missed it.
Deletetoo bad. but then you have routinely missed a lot of things.
Deletereminds me of a story told by a Korean war vet. he was manning a machine gun emplacement that was being swarmed by Chinese troops. he was told to keep up the fire, you're killing a lot of gooks. I have been told (whether true or not) that we killed as many as 800,000 Chinese during that war.
ReplyDeleteeven if true, that's nothing. Mao is said to have killed 60 million of them
ReplyDelete