#Letters from Franco German Yearbooks

[thetldrplace]

Letters from Franco-German Yearbooks- Marx (1843)

Summary Marx criticizes the actual world, which he sees as perverted. In particular, he criticizes political society, that is the Prussian state, as a despotism whose principle is the dehumanization of man. The sole political person is the monarch, who rules through caprice.

Marx counterposes to this the notion of the liberation of a 'thinking mankind' and the formation of a 'community of men that can fulfill their highest needs, a democratic state'. Marx sees the basis for this as the system of industry and commerce, the exploitation of man.

Some interesting quotes from the letters

"Here, as everywhere, rule and exploitation are identical concepts."

This is a key concept in Marxism. There are two basic classes- the exploiters, and the exploited. You’re either one or the other.

"By the same token, the whole principle of socialism is concerned only with one side, namely the reality of the true existence of man. We have also to concern ourselves with the other side, I.e. with man's theoretical existence, and make his religion and science, etc. Into the object of our criticism."

Some of the basis of ‘critical theories’; the point being that relentless criticism must be leveled at all aspects of pre-revolutionary society in order to bring it down.

"Here is the truth, on your knees before it! It means we shall develop for the world new principles from the existing principles of the world. We shall not say: Abandon your struggles, they are mere folly; let us provide you with the true campaign slogans. Instead, we shall simply show the world why it is struggling and consciousness of this is a thing it must acquire whether it wishes or not. The reform of consciousness consists entirely in making the world aware of its own consciousness, in arousing it from its dream of itself, in explaining its own actions to it."

This is a typical thought of Marxism. Marxism has the truth, those that don’t accept it must be shown “whether it wishes it or not”. Marxism believes it alone has truth, and any other belief is a dream, or not real. Marxism believes it alone can explain the actions of the non-believer, and it will push it whether we want it or not. 

[stonewallsposts]

June Reading 

Each month this year I'm trying to read at least one political/historical work, and one novel in Italian. Unfortunately, the political works, I'm spending a lot of time on by taking notes and recapping them so I make sure I understand the arguments. And the Italian novels are just much slower for me to read than in English. For example, Saltatempo was around 250 pages and took 11 days, whereas Moll Flanders was 425 pages and took me 5 days, roughly one quarter of the time per page. But I'm determined to maintain this. It means I'm reading less books this year, and not chugging through my list of novels  as quickly. But of my massive list of books I started with, I'll probably have less than ten left by the end of the year. 

Moll Flanders- Daniel Defoe   (1722) 

Tale of a woman, born in Newgate prison, and how her life moves from servitude to legitimacy, to various troubles and eventually to crime, until she finally is caught, undergoes repentance, and sets things right as much as possible. There are no chapter divisions in the book. The tale just moves from incident to incident, as if she were telling her story to someone she met in a bar. 

Karl Marx- Early Writings (1834-35) 

The early writings consist of: Critique of Hegel's Doctrine of the State, Letters from the Franco-German Yearbooks, On the Jewish Question, A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right Introduction, Excerpts from James Mill's Elements of Political Economy, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, Critical Notes on the Article: The King of Prussia and Social Reform, by a Prussian. 

The importance of these writings is to see the intellectual development of the foundations of Marxism.  

The most difficult and dense to get through was the Critique of Hegel's Doctrine of the State. The articles I got the most from were On the Jewish Question and Excerpts from Mill's Elements of Political Economy. I had already read the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, so I skipped that section. 

There were a few places where I had to rely on outside sources to help me understand what Marx was talking about because it wasn't clear to me at all. The first was just understanding his approach to Hegel. But I found another article that helped explain where he was coming from. The introduction by Lucio Colletti was really helpful too. Apart from those sources, I'm not sure I would have gotten what Marx was talking about. 

The second article that helped immensely was an explanation of how and why Marx used abstraction in his arguments. This is an important concept in his arguments, and I was struggling to follow his thinking. Understanding how he thought about this helped unlock his thought process. 

This is all part of my effort to educate myself about Marxism.  

Non ti muovere- Margaret Mazzantini  (2001) 

Timoteo, a 50ish surgeon, has a 15 year-old daughter who is hit while riding her scooter in the rain to school. She is seriously injured. The story is a confessional Timoteo is thinking to his daughter while she is undergoing surgery. He confesses a long affair with another woman, intermixed with tidbits about how he met his wife, and their years together up to this point.  

The Mill on the Floss- George Eliot  (1860) 

Tale of Maggie Tulliver, a young passionate girl of 8 when we first meet her, until 19. She is seen as troublesome, but intensely passionate and loving. She breaks out on occasion against her more judgmental family, who want to box her in to a more social role. Eliot acknowledges the value of these roles at times, even while portraying their judgment as unfair. Maggie is caught up in her passions, which occasionally lead her astray, but she ends up coming back to her place. It's a good story that tells us about life and the way people looked at certain situations. 

The Twelve Caesars- Suetonius (121AD) 

I won't bother to give a recap of each of the twelve Caesars. But I will note the pattern the book reveals. Rome went from being a Republic to a monarchy. How did it happen? Why did it happen? What are the things that we should look for that cause a people as prosperous as the Romans to give up self-governance and submit to a single ruler? Most of those lessons aren't found in this book. But the fact is:  Rome got Julius Caesar as the first emperor. He was a relatively competent ruler and maybe the people felt that this single hand could accomplish more than the by then relatively useless Senate. But once a "king", or princeps, as they called him, was established, it was only 3 generations before that concentration of power went off the rails. What followed Caesar Augustus was the maleficence of Tiberius, Caligula, Gaius, and Nero, each murdered by people who hated them and their deaths rejoiced over by the populace. The point being that once power is concentrated in the hands of one man, you're not going back, and it's going to attract the worst, most power-hungry men. 

What this book shows is the malfeasance of men entrusted with too much power. There were, on occasions, emperors who showed themselves to be genuinely interested in governing well. They understood the trust that had been put in their hands and sought to rule wisely. But of the twelve Caesars, there were only 4 that fit that. And maybe we should throw out the first two since they were coming into the role from the viewpoint of a republic, not a monarchy. 

That was another thing to note. The republic didn't die at once. The Senate continued to exist, in a somewhat toothless form, well into the imperial age. The settings of the republic didn't disappear, they just lost their power over time until they were institutions in name only.