Since it appears to freak some people out when I repeat myself over the course of a year or two, I shall not explain why I think Marx wrote the opening chapters of Capital as he did. Suffice it to say that comic relief had nothing at all to do with the matter. Marx was not telling a few jokes to lighten the mood – to lend humor to an otherwise bald and tedious narrative, to paraphrase Pooh Bah. He had an exceedingly complex, deep, and utterly revolutionary motive that required him to write as he did. Anyone who is curious as to what that might be can read Moneybags Must Be So Lucky or watch my YouTube lectures on Marx. And yes, since I am so far as I know the only commentator on the thought of Marx who has ever made this argument, I do tend to repeat it.
Doesn't bother me when you repeat yourself. Actually just watched your Marx lecture series for the second time yesterday and today. That's seven or eight hours of repetition and well worth it. Thanks! And thank you Eric for linking to it in comments.
ReplyDeleteThe world—or the microcosm of it here—awaits your exegesis of the Book of Genesis, chapter 3 verses 16 – 19. So what is God telling us there about work--and workers and the their bosses?
ReplyDeleteIn my estimation it bears repetition.
ReplyDeletebetter repeated than forgotten
ReplyDeleteI repeat myself too, and what I say is that when it comes to economics, I feel that there are lots of internet cranks, it's like physics that way. Also, simply lots of cranks like Marx. I don't really mean to single out Marx here, but to emphasize that there is 'establishment' economics, versus lots of attempts to reinvent the whole field. The pretentious stuff doesn't interest me, the 101 interests me. And are there any poor, or unemployed economists? That would be weird. This is the cure for poverty, be an economist, you cannot miss.
ReplyDelete