College of Political Knowledge
Today is Halloween, so I decided to inject a little “supernatural” into my post….something appropriate for the day…….
The machine is economics………and the ghost is….Marx.
For 3+ years we have been inundated with the visions of Marx…Obama is a Marxist….Dems are closet Marxists…….and as I have always pointed out the people making such accusations have NO idea what Marx was about other than their limited knowledge of some history from the days of the “Red Scare”…….to them, Marx was the founder of communism….which is true….but they do not know that Marx also wrote and economic study called Das Kapital with his friend and colleague, Engels…….
In 1867 the first volume of Das Kapital was published…….of course the whole volume was looked at from the economic theory of the day…..Labor theory…….
To make a long winded dissertation easier to understand….I will simplify some of the points that I think are pertinent……Marx made several predictions about capitalism….first, capitalism would spread worldwide and devour all other forms of economic processes…remember back in the 1860’s capitalism was not the all encompassing economic system….second, that it would bring about a techno revolution and finally, capitalism would eventually devour itself and bring its own demise….
Marx was very astute and his predictions have been spot on…..says the Professor Niall Ferguson, professor of political and financial history and no friend of Marxism, by the way, “Marx’s insights into capitalism can still illuminate…Marx got one thing right. Behind the bubbles and busts of the capitalist system there is a class struggle; and that class struggle is the key to modern politics.”
For Marx, the defining characteristics of capitalism in his own time included “the centralisation of capital”, “the expropriation of the mass of the people by a few usurpers” and “the entanglement of all peoples in the net of the world-market, and with this, the international character of the capitalistic regime”. In other words, says Ferguson, “widening inequality and globalisation”. In Marx’s time looks a lot like our time, right?
Marx also said that capitalism would soon start concentrating wealth in the hands of a few and that the middle class would disappear and with all wealth in the hands of a few poverty increases.
Too bad that modern economists could not be as forward thinking as Marx had been,,,,So no matter the criticism, Marx is still the ghost in the machine….
I have a copy of Das Kapital on my book shelf—didn’t get far into it before I stopped reading (can’t remember if it was an assigned class reading or not). Anyway, I am familiar with your above spot on description of Marx. This is not the first time you’ve tried to open minds concerning predictions come to fruition as prophesied by Marx. Keep up the good work. However, I’m sure you’ve heard the Sisyphus story of pushing that damn rock uphill, well the financial barrens of the world keep that hill growing (daily dumps of propaganda) and if Sisyphus ever gets even close to the top he will most definitely be assassinated by one of those propaganda believers. I’m afraid we’ll all become Egyptian slaves pulling ropes to build pyramids (remember the Charlton Heston movie Moses) before people begin to take Marx seriously! Again, great post, keep up the good work (forget about the Sisyphus story–it’s only a myth anyway).
Morning B….and thank you and it is good to see that my writings do keep people’s minds open to possibilities……..people need to stop worrying who wrote something and look at the character of what is written….Marx was an accomplished economic thinker and boy, was he long winded….he could have written Russian novels….thanx again and keep reading there is more to come….
Lobotero,
I have never read “Das Kapital,” but I have read the “Communist Manifesto,” and I must say that upon completion I was absolutely certain that most on the Rigjt haven’t a clue what Communism is all about. They toss the word around as an insult because that is what it had become in modern parlance.
Hi Terrance and you are spot on……Marx was by far a better predicter of the future through human activity than anyone ever wanted to admit…..
When it comes to Marx, I prefer Groucho.
Hansi….he was a great thinker of his day much like Karl…maybe not along the same lines but a great thinker nonetheless…..
Great post, and keep up the good work.
Thanx Don, I appreciate that. I will be writing more on Marx and his contributions and other political doings…please keep reading….
You’re welcome. I look forward to your posts, as they are full of good information. It would be nice to see the right-wingers read some of your stuff, and maybe, just maybe they may learn something.
We could only hope…….but they do not really want the truth….sad
I learn a lot when I read your posts. It’s like he had a crystal ball or something.
Spinny, so true and like I said in the post…it is a shame that we cannot find forward looking economists now……we do have them…..just politicians have the attention span of a horny rabbit…..