Re: Thomas Frank op-ed piece

[Waistline2@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 7/24/2004 1:04:02 PM Central Standard Time, cbcox@xxxxxxxxx writes:

 

>Or to put it another way, to reject Marx's distinction between productive and unproductive labor (by placing on it the burden of practical economics or political economy) you will completely lose the main point of Marx's whole life's labor, that capitalism is a _historical_ phenomenon. That it is _different_. And it is different (among other reasons) because of the difference between the two types of human activity which our Walgreens' clerk has exhibited for us. That distinction could not have arisen except in a capitalist economy. And it probably can't be translated into empirically confirmable/disconfirmable statements about the "actual" economy -- but one cannot let that interfere with developing one's historical and cultural understanding of the distinctions in living human activity involved.<

 

Carrol

 

Comment

 

Poetic.

 

I understand my historical connection. You are correct on the entire spans of the polemics concerning electoral politics and Marx Capital Volume 1 . . . in my opinion.

 

Profound piece.

 

Nothing anarchist about it.

 

Very working class . . . very proletarian . . . very communist.

 

Melvin P.