[Marxism] Marxism lite

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

<http://geopolicraticus.wordpress.com/2008/12/06/marxism-lite/>Marxism Lite




6 December 2008

Perhaps instead of speaking of "Marxism Lite" I should frame my views 
in terms of "zombie Marxism", for it seems that the spectre of Marx, 
hovering over Europe this past century, is to be disinterred from his 
tomb at Highgate Cemetery, propped back on its feet, reanimated, and 
made to walk stiffly to and fro so that all the world may gawk at 
this stupor mundi. More than a month ago the BBC website ran the 
story <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7679758.stm>"Marx popular 
amid credit crunch" (20 October 2008) noting an uptick in sales of 
Das Kapital. The publisher is quoted as saying, "There's a younger 
generation of academics tackling hard questions and looking to Marx 
for answers," and the eminent Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm is also 
quoted from a BBC Radio 4 interview: "Globalisation, which is 
implicit in capitalism, not only destroys the heritage and tradition 
but it is incredibly unstable, it operates through a series of 
crises, and I think this has been recognised to be the end of this 
particular era," (1)

I find myself thinking about Marx again not so much because of the 
current financial panic, but rather because I am currently listening 
to Marx's Das Kapital: A Biography, by Francis Wheen. In fact, I have 
already listened through it once entirely, but as with most audio 
books that I take in, I will listen to it at least two or three times 
to make sure I get the full benefit of the text. A second "reading" 
often makes plain that which escapes a first reading. The author is 
apparently of the same mind as Hobsbawn as regards the value and 
veracity of Marx's work. Indeed, I heard the author, Wheen, 
interviewed on the radio recently, making the same conclusions 
regarding Marx and the present financial crisis that where of the 
substance (in so far as there was any) of the BBC story.

full: http://geopolicraticus.wordpress.com/2008/12/06/marxism-lite/ 


________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40archives.econ.utah.edu