The rehabilitation of Karl Marx

[Brian4Liberty]

John Stewart had a guest on the Daily Show that has written a new book about Karl Marx. As John said, a book to humanize Marx. Instead of publicly denying Marx, are they going to try to rehabilitate him now? They mentioned that he was a respectable writer for the largest US newspaper at the time, the New York Tribune (one of Abraham Lincoln's favorites).

The book itself:



Karl Marx is a magisterial and defining biography that vividly explores not only the man himself but also the revolutionary times in which he lived.

Between his birth in 1818 and his death sixty-five years later, Karl Marx became one of Western civilization’s most influential political philosophers. Two centuries on, he is still revered as a prophet of the modern world, yet he is also blamed for the darkest atrocities of modern times. But no matter in what light he is cast, the short, but broad-shouldered, bearded Marx remains—as a human being—distorted on a Procrustean bed of political “isms,” perceived through the partially distorting lens of his chief disciple, Friedrich Engels, or understood as a figure of twentieth-century totalitarian Marxist regimes.

Returning Marx to the Victorian confines of the nineteenth century, Jonathan Sperber, one of the United States’ leading European historians, challenges many of our misconceptions of this political firebrand turned London émigré journalist. In this deeply humanizing portrait, Marx no longer is the Olympian soothsayer, divining the dialectical imperatives of human history, but a scholar-activist whose revolutionary Weltanschauung was closer to Robespierre’s than to those of twentieth-century Marxists.

With unlimited access to the MEGA (the Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe, the total edition of Marx’s and Engels’s writings), only recently available, Sperber juxtaposes the private man, the public agitator, and the philosopher-economist. We first see Marx as a young boy in the city of Trier, influenced by his father, Heinrich, for whom “the French Revolution and its aftermath offered an opportunity to escape the narrowly circumscribed social and political position of Jews in the society.” For Heinrich’s generation, this worldview meant no longer being a member of the so-called Jewish nation, but for his son, the reverberations were infinitely greater—namely a life inspired by the doctrines of the Enlightenment and an implacable belief in human equality.

Contextualizing Marx’s personal story—his rambunctious university years, his loving marriage to the devoted Jenny von Westphalen (despite an illegitimate child with the family maid), his children’s tragic deaths, the catastrophic financial problems—within a larger historical stage, Sperber examines Marx’s public actions and theoretical publications against the backdrop of a European continent roiling with political and social unrest. Guided by newly translated notes, drafts, and correspondence, he highlights Marx’s often overlooked work as a journalist; his political activities in Berlin, Paris, and London; and his crucial role in both creating and destroying the International Working Men’s Association. With Napoleon III, Bismarck, Adam Smith, and Charles Darwin, among others, as supporting players, Karl Marx becomes not just a biography of a man but a vibrant portrait of an infinitely complex time.

Already hailed by Publishers Weekly as “a major work . . . likely to be the standard biography of Marx for many years,” Karl Marx promises to become the defining portrait of a towering historical figure.

http://www.amazon.com/Karl-Marx-A-Nineteenth-Century-Life/dp/0871404672

[Brian4Liberty]

Link to video:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-april-2-2013/jonathan-sperber

[jkr]

"THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A COMMUNIST CONSPIRACY"

they took over long ago

[BAllen]

"THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A COMMUNIST CONSPIRACY"

they took over long ago

It's a sneaky communism here. Gradual land grab, and redistribution. Property taxes, building regulations, zoning, & section 8.

[Brian4Liberty]

It's a sneaky communism here. Gradual land grab, and redistribution. Property taxes, building regulations, zoning, & section 8.

Modified communism. More like the original socialism which was in competition with Marx and Engels. A system ruled by and for the benefit of an elite royal class. Some redistribution of wealth from one peon to the next to keep them docile, while taking the biggest cut for themselves. In the end, most systems trend toward an Oligarchy or Plutocracy. Crony corporatist socialism is the essence of modern Marxism.

Marxists become Fascists the minute they become rich, yet they retain the Marxist rhetoric. Dianne Feinstein is a prime example. Spewing populist nonsense and pushing for more government while giving government contracts and preferrential treatment to her husband's companies.

For the modern version of Marxists (Marxist v4.2), it had become popular to publicly disavow Marxism, and anyone who uses that term is called crazy. But is it? Just because modern Marxists have given up on total government ownship of everything doesn't mean that the label no longer applies. Democrats used to be the biggest supporters of slavery. Are they no longer Democrats now that they no longer support slavery?

[Brian4Liberty]

If they fully rehabilitate Marx, might we eventually see his picture hanging in government buildings along with Lenin and Lincoln, as they do in some socialist organizations? Well, they would have to rehabilitate Lenin too, but given enough time, this too may pass.

[Brian4Liberty]

Time Magazine, last week: Marx was right. The rehabilitation continues. How long until Marx takes his place in public schools?


Marx’s Revenge: How Class Struggle Is Shaping the World

Karl Marx was supposed to be dead and buried. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and China’s Great Leap Forward into capitalism, communism faded into the quaint backdrop of James Bond movies or the deviant mantra of Kim Jong Un. The class conflict that Marx believed determined the course of history seemed to melt away in a prosperous era of free trade and free enterprise. The far-reaching power of globalization, linking the most remote corners of the planet in lucrative bonds of finance, outsourcing and “borderless” manufacturing, offered everybody from Silicon Valley tech gurus to Chinese farm girls ample opportunities to get rich. Asia in the latter decades of the 20th century witnessed perhaps the most remarkable record of poverty alleviation in human history — all thanks to the very capitalist tools of trade, entrepreneurship and foreign investment. Capitalism appeared to be fulfilling its promise — to uplift everyone to new heights of wealth and welfare.

Or so we thought. With the global economy in a protracted crisis, and workers around the world burdened by joblessness, debt and stagnant incomes, Marx’s biting critique of capitalism — that the system is inherently unjust and self-destructive — cannot be so easily dismissed. Marx theorized that the capitalist system would inevitably impoverish the masses as the world’s wealth became concentrated in the hands of a greedy few, causing economic crises and heightened conflict between the rich and working classes. “Accumulation of wealth at one pole is at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation, at the opposite pole,” Marx wrote.

A growing dossier of evidence suggests that he may have been right. It is sadly all too easy to find statistics that show the rich are getting richer while the middle class and poor are not. A September study from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) in Washington noted that the median annual earnings of a full-time, male worker in the U.S. in 2011, at $48,202, were smaller than in 1973. Between 1983 and 2010, 74% of the gains in wealth in the U.S. went to the richest 5%, while the bottom 60% suffered a decline, the EPI calculated. No wonder some have given the 19th century German philosopher a second look. In China, the Marxist country that turned its back on Marx, Yu Rongjun was inspired by world events to pen a musical based on Marx’s classic Das Kapital. “You can find reality matches what is described in the book,” says the playwright.

More:

http://business.time.com/2013/03/25/marxs-revenge-how-class-struggle-is-shaping-the-world/

[Philhelm]

Shit. I'd be happy if I were earning the median income. I'm only making $36,000 per year. I'm a sad panda.

[angelatc]

In China, the Marxist country that turned its back on Marx,.....

and finally started climbing out of poverty. They forgot that part.

[Anti Federalist]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uRDqdKW6cXU/T5163u8XPqI/AAAAAAAAFOs/GXChFQSbxto/s1600/Become+a+symbol.jpg

[Anti Federalist]

Ten Planks of the Communist Manifesto

1. Abolition of private property and the application of all rent to public purpose.

The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (1868), and various zoning, school & property taxes. Also the Bureau of Land Management.



2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

Misapplication of the 16th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, 1913, The Social Security Act of 1936.; Joint House Resolution 192 of 1933; and various State "income" taxes. We call it "paying your fair share".



3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.

We call it Federal & State estate Tax (1916); or reformed Probate Laws, and limited inheritance via arbitrary inheritance tax statutes.



4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.

We call in government seizures, tax liens, Public "law" 99-570 (1986);

Executive order 11490, sections 1205, 2002 which gives private land to the Department of Urban Development; the imprisonment of "terrorists" and those who speak out or write against the "government" (1997 Crime/Terrorist Bill); or the IRS confiscation of property without due process.



5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.

We call it the Federal Reserve which is a credit/debt system nationally organized by the Federal Reserve act of 1913. All local banks are members of the Fed system, and are regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).



6. Centralization of the means of communication and transportation in the hands of the State.

We call it the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Department of Transportation (DOT) mandated through the ICC act of 1887, the Commissions Act of 1934, The Interstate Commerce Commission established in 1938, The Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Communications Commission, and Executive orders 11490, 10999, as well as State mandated driver's licenses and Department of Transportation regulations.



7. Extention of factories and instruments of production owned by the State, the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.

We call it corporate capacity, The Desert Entry Act and The Department of Agriculture. As well as the Department of Commerce and Labor, Department of Interior, the Evironmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Mines, National Park Service, and the IRS control of business through corporate regulations.



8. Equal liablity of all to labor. Establishment of Industrial armies, especially for agriculture.

We call it the Social Security Administration and The Department of Labor. The National debt and inflation caused by the communal bank has caused the need for a two "income" family. Woman in the workplace since the 1920's, the 19th amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, assorted Socialist Unions, affirmative action, the Fedral Public Works Program and of course Executive order 11000.



9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.

We call it the Planning Reorganization act of 1949 , zoning (Title 17 1910-1990) and Super Corporate Farms, as well as Executive orders 11647, 11731 (ten regions) and Public "law" 89-136.



10. Free education for all children in government schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc. etc.

People are being taxed to support what we call 'public' schools, which train the young to work for the communal debt system. We also call it the Department of Education, the NEA and Outcome Based "Education" .

[mad cow]

In this deeply humanizing portrait, Marx no longer is the Olympian soothsayer, divining the dialectical imperatives of human history, but a scholar-activist whose revolutionary Weltanschauung was closer to Robespierre’s than to those of twentieth-century Marxists.


Damning with faint praise.All 20th century Marxist butchers needed to humanize them was a Committee of Public Safety and a Guillotine.

[Brian4Liberty]

Damning with faint praise.All 20th century Marxist butchers needed to humanize them was a Committee of Public Safety and a Guillotine.

On the Wikipedia entry on Robespierre, he sounds like a saint. Or Lincoln. Now Marx?


Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre; (6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer, politician, and one of the best-known and most influential figures of the French Revolution.

As a member of the Estates-General, the Constituent Assembly and the Jacobin Club, he advocated against the death penalty and for the abolition of slavery, while supporting equality of rights, universal suffrage and the establishment of a republic.

[Brian4Liberty]

Crony corporatist socialism is the essence of modern Marxism.


In 2008, Will Grigg gave this description of the new President:


Obama, a well-compensated legal agitator and foundation-connected "community organizer," straddles the narrow divide between collectivists of the corporate variety and those of the cultural Marxist persuasion.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/grigg/grigg-w62.html

[Lucille]

"Marx was a fool with a large vocabulary of long words."
--Isabel Paterson (http://books.google.com/books?id=Bgw2nKffTXMC&q=chapter+x#v=snippet&q=chapter%20x&f=false)

[Brian4Liberty]

"Marx was a fool with a large vocabulary of long words."
--Isabel Paterson (http://books.google.com/books?id=Bgw2nKffTXMC&q=chapter+x#v=snippet&q=chapter%20x&f=false)

Beware comrade, that may become prohibited speech in the future.

[Brian4Liberty]

Is the rehabilitation of Marx complete now?

[Krugminator2]

Believe it or not: Karl Marx is making a comebackIt's true. The "Communist Manifesto" co-author has gotten a second life — and he has some advice for progressives http://www.salon.com/2014/06/22/believe_it_or_not_karl_marx_is_making_a_comeback/

"These days, the American dream is more apt to be realized in South America, in places such as Ecuador, Venezuela and Argentina, where incomes are actually more equal today than they are in the land of Horatio Alger. Who's the banana republic now?" Bernie Sanders in 2011 https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/must-read/close-the-gaps-disparities-that-threaten-america


It is funny that non-existent Nazis are all the media talks about but a guy who praises the Communist Sandanistas in Nicarauga and gushed over Cuba, wins 23 states and is seen as perfectly normal.

[Danke]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uRDqdKW6cXU/T5163u8XPqI/AAAAAAAAFOs/GXChFQSbxto/s1600/Become+a+symbol.jpg

that would make a great avatar...

[Swordsmyth]

that would make a great avatar...

Especially if you are a black member of this site.