A Commentary on the Passing Scene by Robert Paul Wolff rwolff@afroam.umass.edu
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
AN INTELLECTUAL SELFIE
The selfie is, it seems to me, the defining cultural artifact of the modern age, given immortality by Andrew Weiner. [thanks for the correction.] Like all cultural practices, it has its intellectual version [think The Whore of Mensa by Woody Allen.] Well, I am not immune to the tides of fashion. Last Friday I did a one hour interview with a North Dakota philosopher named Jack Weinstein who runs an NPR program out there called Why? when he is not teaching at UND. He sent me a podcast of the show, and after listening to it, I have decided that it is no more than ordinarily embarrassing, so here it is. It can fill the need for sensory stimulation while you are cleaning the house or driving to work.
I posted a comment but for some reason it did not register. I'll try again.
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting this! It was fantastic. I always thought one of the most radical ideas Marx had, that is never discussed, was the abolition of the wage form of compensation.
And another great Marxist (Groucho) suggested the same in The Coconuts. (He's negotiating with the hotel staff and offers to cut their wages to zero, since "they don't want to be wage slaves, do they?" I'll try to find a clip.
ReplyDeleteAhh, here's the script:
ReplyDeleteMR. HAMMER, who runs the hotel, walks stiffly down the stairs, apparently having just awakened. We first catch sight of him, a cigar in his mouth, putting on his frock coat. He wears glasses and a black greasepaint mustache. A mob of thirteen bellboys confronts him at the landing. [NOTE: The first bellboy is a boy. The rest of the bellboys are girls, maybe the same girls who were kicking on the beach.]
BELLBOY We want to see you, Mr. Hammer!
HAMMER What's the matter? Somebody pay their bill?
BELLBOYS We want our money!
BELLBOY Yes, money.
HAMMER You want your money?
BELLBOY We wanna get paid.
HAMMER Ohhhh! You want my money. Is that fair? Do I want your money? Suppose George Washington's soldiers had asked for money. Where would this country be today?
BELLBOY But they did ask.
HAMMER And where's Washington? No, my friends, no. Money will never make you happy. And happy will never make you money. That might be a wise crack but I doubt it.
BELLBOYS We want our money!
HAMMER I'll make you all a promise. If you'll all stick with me and work hard, we'll forget about money. Let's get together. We'll make a regular hotel out of this place. I'll put writing paper in the hotel. Next year, if you behave yourselves, I'll put in envelopes. I'm gonna put extra blankets free in all your rooms -- there'll be no cover charge.
Having exchanged glances with one another during the above speech, the bellboys [or girls] seem mollified.
BELLBOYS
Hooray!
HAMMER Think! Think of the opportunities here in Florida. Three years ago, I came to Florida without a nickel in my pocket. Now, I've got a nickel in my pocket.
BELLBOY That's all very well, Mr. Hammer, but we haven't been paid in two weeks and we want our wages!
HAMMER Wages? Do you want to be wage slaves, answer me that.
BELLBOYS (unenthusiastic)
No.
HAMMER No, of course not. Well, what makes wage slaves? Wages! I want you to be free. Remember, there's nothing like Liberty -- except Collier's and the Saturday Evening Post. Be free, my friends. One for all, and all for me, and me for you, and three for five and six for a quarter.
That's Anthony Weiner, not "Andrew Wiener."
ReplyDeleteI've just listened to the opening minutes of the Jack Weinstein interview (I'll try to listen to the rest later).
ReplyDeleteWeinstein in the opening refers to Marx's "lengthy, complex, and sometimes even obtuse [sic]" analysis. Presumably Weinstein meant abstruse, not obtuse.
(Not taking the time to check the dictionary at the moment, but I think I'm right about this.)
LFC: I did indeed mean obtuse. I hoped to convey that Marx sometimes got things wrong because of a lack of knowledge of certain everyday life experiences, although as we know from the history of philosophy, sometimes even the biggest errors are the most instructive.
DeleteBut Marx was also abstruse.
Thanks for listening!
ANTHONY.
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