tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3358148998045555545.post3881379141282437072..comments2024-03-28T04:27:27.713-05:00Comments on May Day Books Blog: The Review of the ReviewersCoreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07629684440934461513noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3358148998045555545.post-1220868037606856332014-04-30T09:59:20.797-05:002014-04-30T09:59:20.797-05:00It's become de rigueur for any self-respecting...It's become de rigueur for any self-respecting reviewer to review Piketty's book. Even that NYT dullard, David Brooks, has written one though it's patently clear he hasn't read the book.<br /><br />It's not clear why the book has become a runaway bestseller -- it seems to have tapped into the zeitgeist. The reasons that suggest themselves are 1) Piketty uses the technocratic language of statistics and big data sets (the use of which fits in comfortably with the neolib mindset, even if the conclusions don't) and 2) the book is free of an overt Marxist bias (because Piketty is a social democrat). The last time I recall such sudden popularity was for Kennedy's "Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" about twenty-five years back.<br /><br />I suggested to Craig that he order the book about six weeks back -- it's been on my wish list for about six months (i.e., before it got published), and I got my own copy a month back. Since then it has sold out and it can't be had for love or money. The easiest way to get mugged in certain parts of NYC is to be seen carrying the book.<br /><br />It will be interesting to see how fast the book goes from being de rigueur to being passe among the in-crowd. I suspect it's already started on that trek. The very aspects that catapulted it to fame will lead to its demise: it's easy to read but not a work of high theory (like Marx's "Capital").AAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13242448989166177843noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3358148998045555545.post-69270079409749962272014-04-30T09:53:18.105-05:002014-04-30T09:53:18.105-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.AAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13242448989166177843noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3358148998045555545.post-7011502425579806002014-04-23T20:52:48.694-05:002014-04-23T20:52:48.694-05:00Marx
There are at least three Marxs. First is the...Marx<br />There are at least three Marxs. First is the Marx of Capital Volume 1 and 2. The analytical Marx, who explained things like the labor theory of value, and the fundamental contradiction of capitalism that productivity will go up as wages go down until no one can buy what the capitalists produce. Kind of like what is happening now.<br />Second is the Marx of Family, Private Property and the State that attempts to delineat different modes of production and also agues very strongly that material conditions dominate and ideology is not important.<br /><br />And then there is the Marx of the Communist Manifesto which argues the opposite, that class struggle will lead to ideological changes and thus material changes. It is as if Marx did not like his own conclusions and wanted a way to undo the analysis he had done so well.<br /><br />The only similarity between Piketty and Marx is in being analytical in addressing the data (and there is a lot more now for Piketty than there was for Marx). <br />None of this is, however, relevant to the use of the label “Marxist” in the cases mentioned in the article. Throughout most of the 20th century there was a deliberate propaganda campaign in the US to demonize anyone who read, understood, Marx, or agreed with him. In American culture the ideal is an individual that makes individualistic independent choices. Americans are susceptible to the creation of cultural enemies through assertions that two kinds of people do not make individualistic choices, savages and bugs. Americans assert that those they are opposed to are savages, so close to nature they are incapable of impulse control, of thinking individually. Bugs are the social insects that have given over their decision making to someone else, they are also the communists, the Nazis. Labeling someone a Marxist is code in American culture for asserting that the one labeled is not thinking as an individual. That is what the examples provided are seeking to do to Piketty.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com