Monday, October 27, 2008

Sarah Palin the Marxist?

From the New Yorker:

"One of the reasons Palin has been a popular governor is that she added an extra twelve hundred dollars to this year’s check, bringing the per-person total to $3,269. A few weeks before she was nominated for Vice-President, she told a visiting journalist—Philip Gourevitch, of this magazine—that “we’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs.” Perhaps there is some meaningful distinction between spreading the wealth and sharing it (“collectively,” no less), but finding it would require the analytic skills of Karl the Marxist."

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Marxist Podcasts

Reading Karl Marx is back in vogue. I have seen a number of news articles that have spotlighted the increased sales of Marxist literature. I would encourage every one to read Marx.

I can't think of anything better than a podcast dedicated to "Reading Karl Marx's Capital."

The podcast comes from David Harvey. You can find it here. Harvey has been teaching a class on reading Capital for decades. He knows his stuff. He also has an enjoyable speaking voice. He strays from a pure "textual" rendition of Capital and included a wide range of sophisticated techniques of analysis.



If you would like to "listen" to Capital on your own you can listen to a terrific version here.