The difficulty in finding Marx.

A blogger asks "Why is it that, as Economics students in the American academia, we are only trained with the (conservative) Smith and (liberal) Keynesian variety, with Smith getting the upper hand, and not even exposed to the equally valid theory of economic forces by Karl Marx?"

He then points out the sad state Marxist thought in typical American universities "Sadly enough, this extends even to graduate school. Marx is not even considered by the majority of Philosophy departments in the U.S. as a philosopher. One can hardly find a Philosophy course devoted to Marx, his influence, and/or his followers."

Das Capital as Literature.

The poet of dialectics

Marx's masterpeice is deconstructed as literture, rather than scientific prose. Nice article that is an "edited extract from Marx's Das Kapital: A Biography, part of a series, Books that Shook the World, published this month by Atlantic and to be serialised in Review in coming weeks."

From the review...

"Karl Marx's Das Kapital is a ground-breaking work of economic analysis. But, argues Francis Wheen, it is also an unfinished literary masterpiece which, with its multi-layered structure, can be read as a Gothic novel, a Victorian melodrama, a Greek tragedy or a Swiftian satire."

Source: A&L Daily

What Do We Mean By Anti-Capitalism?

The first of a three part series by Wayne Price answering the question of what we mean by anti-capitalist.

"Many activists call themselves “anti-capitalist.” But this is a negative; what should we be for? Since anti-capitalists wish to find an alternative to the current system, it is necessary to examine the nature of societies which claim to have once replaced capitalism, namely the former Soviet Union and similar nations. "

Marx and Human Nature.

ELIZABETH TERZAKIS writes in the International Socialist Review about Marx's conception of human nature.

Tony Blair asks : Marx: does he still matter?

"In a letter to former Labour leader Michael Foot, written in 1982 and published yesterday, Tony Blair reveals that reading Karl Marx 'irreversibly altered' his outlook. He even agreed with Tony Benn that Labour's right-wing was politically bankrupt. "

He then goes on to claim that Marxism tries to answer "all the questions" for you.

Nine commentators - including Mr Benn - whether Marxism still has anything to offer today."

Source:

Marx as the sunny optimist of Modernism,

Open Democracy's article suggests Francis Fukuyama "is caught between the triumphalism of Kant, Hegel, and Marx, and the despair of Nietzsche, Heidegger and Kojève."

Marx is viewed as a "sunny rationalist" who embraces modern man's quest to end superstition and replace the "shameful" past of tribalism with a "universal Empire of Reason."

In contrast to Marx, Alexander Kojève "imagined that a cold and arid rationality would take over the globe and that as a result, everything wild, irrational and unpredictable would disappear from it."

Alexander Kojève was heavily influenced by Hegel and Marx.

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