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Title: Capital: A Critique of Political Economy: Volume One
(Introduction by Ernest Mandel,
1976)
Author: Karl
Marx
Translator:
Ben Fowkes, 1976.
Year: 1990
Edition: This
edition first published in Pelican Books 1976
Place: London
Publisher:
Penguin Classics
Reader: Mr
M.D. Pienaar
AND
Title: The
Communist Manifesto (Introduction and notes by Gareth Stedman
Jones, 2002)
Authors: Karl
Marx and Friedrich Engels
Translator:
Samuel Moore, 1888.
Year: 2002
Edition: 1st
Penguin Classics
Place: London
Publisher:
Penguin Classics
Reader: Mr
M.D. Pienaar
AND
Title: Mein
Kampf
Author: Adolf
Hitler
Translator:
James Murphy
Year: 1939
Edition: 1st,
8th reprint (November 1939)
Place: London
Publisher:
Hurst and Blackett Ltd.
Reader: Mr
M.D. Pienaar
AND
Title: The
Social Contract
Author:
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Translator
and Introduction: Maurice Granston
Year: 1968
Edition: 1st
Penguin Classics
Place: London
Publisher:
Penguin Classics
Reader: Mr
M.D. Pienaar.
AND
Title:
Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
Author:
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Year: 2004
Edition: 1st
Dover.
Place:
Mineola, New York
Publisher:
Dover Publications, Inc.
Reader: Mr
M.D. Pienaar.
"Men made clothes for thousands of years, under
the compulsion of the need for clothing, without a single man
becoming a tailor. But the existence of coats, of linen, of
every element of material wealth not provided in advance by
nature, had always to be mediated through a specific
productive activity appropriate to its purpose, a productive
activity that assimilated particular natural materials to
particular human requirements. Labour, then, as the
creator [own bold] of use values, as useful labour, is a
condition of human existence which is independent of all
forms of society [own bold]; it is an eternal natural
necessity which mediates the metabolism between man and
nature, and therefore human life itself.
Use-values like coats, linen, etc., in short, the
physical bodies of commodities, are combinations of two
elements, the material provided by nature, and labour." (Marx
1990:133)
Elsewhere Marx implied that God creates out of
nothing because he wrote humans only reform existents into new
forms.
It seems Marx did not consider ideas as valuable,
maybe because during his time labour was not remunerated
fairly. He was possibly arguing for the most immediately
logical solution for underpaid workers. Up to p. 133 of the
book it seems as if the communist belief that all labour hours
have the same value, could have originated partly from Marx.
Did he see idea generation as an opposing force by
capitalists?
Marx excluded qualitative aspects of labour and
education from his calculation of "the value of a commodity"
on this page (Marx 1990:135). "Simple average labour,
it is true, varies in character in different countries and at
different cultural epochs, but in a particular society it is
given. More complex labour counts only as intensified, or
rather multiplied simple labour, so that a smaller quantity of
complex labour is considered equal to a larger amount of
simple labour. Experience shows that this reduction is
constantly being made. A commodity may be the outcome of the
most complicated labour, but through its value it is posited
as equal to the product of simple labour, hence it represents
only a specific quantity of simple labour." (Marx 1990:135)
"In general, the greater the productivity of labour, the less
the labour time required to produce an article, the less the
mass of labour crystalized in that article, and the less its
value. Inversely, the less the productivity of labour, the
greater the labour-time necessary to produce an article, and
the greater its value." (Marx 1990:133). The contradiction
between pp. 133 and 135 is caused by Marx's idea of "In
general", which he did "In the interest of simplification"
(Marx 1990:135).
On p. 137 reference is made to Adam Smith's view
of value and labour.
"Things which in and for themselves are not
commodities, things such as conscience, honour, etc., can be
offered for sale by their holders, and thus acquire the form
of commodities through their price. Hence a thing can,
formally speaking, have a price without having a value." (Marx
1990:197)
"The circulation of commodities is the
starting-point of capital. The production of commodities and
their circulation in its developed form, namely trade, form
the historic presuppositions under which capital arises. World
trade and the world market date from the sixteenth century,
and from then on the modern history of capital starts to
unfold." (Marx 1990:247) This is obviously false because after
ideas originate, then the capital is raised to develop those
ideas. Money/Capital is then used to pay salaries during the
development process of commodities. Especially when new money
is printed and forwarded, for example at the OECD countries.
The quantitative easing, which took place, recently after the
2008 financial crisis however were mostly used to refinance
banks. The capital was thus created, which gave banks new
capital to issue development capital. It would be interesting
to see where all the quantitative easing capital entered the
system.
Marx refers to Aristotle ("De Republica, ed.
Bekker, lib. I, c. 8,9, passim. Works of Aristotle, Vol X,
Oxford, 1921 'Politica', trs. B. Jowett, paras. 1256 and
1257). He explains that Aristotle distinguished between
barter, which is a "means to an end" and "chrematistics".
Chrematistics is an "end in itself" with unlimited
possibility. Chrematistics is not exchanging in the sense of
bartering to get hold of a commodity for self-use. Money made
chrematistics possible; that is pursuing maximum profit
without limit, via buying and selling. (Marx 1990: 252-254)
"Hence Aristotle says: 'Since chrematistics is a
double science, one part belonging to commerce, the other to
economics, the latter being necessary and praiseworthy, the
former based on circulation and with justice disapproved (for
it is not based on Nature, but on mutual cheating), the usurer
is most rightly hated, because money itself is the source of
his gain, and is not used for the purposes for which it was
invented.' Aristotle, op cit. c. 10 [English translation,
para. 1258b]" (Marx 1990:267)
"We have seen that the means of production
transfer value to the new product only when during the labour
process they lose value in the shape of their old use-value.
The maximum loss of value the means of production can suffer
in the process is plainly limited by the amount of the
original value with which they entered into it, or, in other
words, by the labour-time required to produce them. Therefore
the means of production can never add more value to the
product than they themselves possess independently of the
process in which they assist." (Marx 1990:313-314) Marx
excluded profit from the value added. The purchase price of
the means was not considered. "Means" mean machines etc, not
direct labour. Up to now in the book i have not seen anything
that shows that Marx valued ideas. He did however analyse
profit, which is "surplus-value" in his words (Marx 1990:324).
Marx wrote that "surplus-value" originates from working longer
working hours than necessary, to supply self with the
necessary things to live. He wrote that it takes, fore example
6 hours per day to supply self with necessities. If a worker
thus works 12 hours, the additional 6 hours accumulate into
the selling value of the commodities of a producer/capitalist
(Marx 1990:324-325). Marx ascribed profit only to a difference
between necessary labour hours and necessary+surplus labour
hours without considering effects ideas have on the time of
necessary labour hours and consequentially on profit (Marx
1990:327-328).
"Moreover, the cooperation of wage-labourers is
entirely brought about by the capital that employs them. Their
unification into one single productive body, and the
establishment of a connection between their individual
functions, lies outside their competence. These things are not
their own act, but the act of the capital that brings them
together and maintains them in that situation. Hence the
interconnection between their various labours confronts them,
in the realm of ideas, as a plan drawn up by a capitalist,
and, in practice, as his authority, as the powerful will of a
being outside them, who subjects their activity to his
purpose. If capitalist direction is thus twofold in content,
owing to the twofold nature of the process of production which
has to be directed - on the one hand a social labour process
for the creation of a product, and on the other hand capital's
process of valorization - in form it is purely despotic."
(Marx 1990:449-450)
Marx explains a difference between production at
old Indian rural societies and capitalist manufacturers. He
wrote that at the Indian communities the system was static and
all the land was held in community of property. Nobody was
allowed to employ people in the Indian system because the
community allocated the produce to, for example, a potter. In
the capitalist system, capitalists have access to capital and
land and can employ people. Traders, like others in the Indian
system were not allowed to employ people and own land. Their
power was thus limited. In India the people were however still
controlled (influenced), it seems, from Marx writing,
centrally, by, the 'elders' of a community, for example
Brahmins etc. In India dynasties changed but the social
structure of the 'communist' communities stayed static. At
capitalism workers often don't have skills to make a whole
product. They make parts of products and therefore their
skills make them immobile and more subservient to their
employer and potential employers. (Marx 1990:477-482)
One big difference between the two systems is the
influence of new ideas. In the capitalist system new ideas are
much more likely to develop because of many capitalists who
can decide on courses of action to develop ideas. In the
Indian "communist" system there was much less freedom to
innovate, but on the other hand, according to Marx, people
could not be employed by capitalists and was freer in that
sense.
"It is a result of the division of labour in
manufacture that the worker is brought face to face with the
intellectual potentialities (geistige Potenzen) of the material process of
production as the property of another and as a power which
rules over him. This process of separation starts in simple
co-operation, where the capitalist represents to the
individual workers the unity and will of the whole body of
social labour. It is developed in manufacture, which mutilates
the worker, turning him into a fragment of himself. It is
completed in large-scale industry, which makes science a
potentiality of for production which is distinct from labour
and presses it into the service of capital.[1]
In manufacture, the social productive power of the collective
worker, hence of capital, is enriched through the
impoverishment of the worker in individual productive power.
'Ignorance is the mother of industry as well as of
superstition. Reflection and fancy are subject to err; but a
habit of moving the hand or the foot is independent of either.
Manufactures, accordingly, prosper most where the mind is
least consulted, and where the workshop may ... [Marx's
ellipsis] be considered as an engine, the parts of which are
men.'[2]
As a matter of fact, in the middle of the eighteenth century
some manufacturers preferred to employ semi-idiots for certain
operations which, though simple, were trade secrets.[3]"
(Marx 1990:482).
Marx was thus in favour of thinking and he
identified the same problem, which Pienaar identified. The
problem is that thinking is not motivated enough. The
Communist system however, had the opposite effect of what Marx
partly promoted. It seems Marx's solution or, solutions from
how his work was interpreted, did not solve the problem he
identified. Pienaar opines the reason was that Communism made
ideas more commonly owned. Communists, for example abolished
the church's patens; what did they do with patents? With
Capitalism, although the availability of capital to develop
ideas, is skewed, development happened more efficiently than
at Communism. Pienaar's proposed solutions is thus to the
opposite side of Communism's, according to his current
knowledge. Currently, with Capitalism, ideas are appropriated
and developed, benefitting a small part of society
financially. Benefits, often, do not settle 'at all', at 'the'
generators of ideas and therefore idea generations are not
motivated. At Communism, it seems, benefits of idea
generations were even further removed from generators, because
ideas were regarded more socially Mind like than at
Capitalism.
13 January 2016
"The Holy Family (German: Die heilige Familie) is a book written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in November
1844. The book is a critique on the Young Hegelians and their trend
of thought which was very popular in academic circles at the
time. The title was a suggestion by the publisher and is meant
as a sarcastic reference to the Bauer Brothers and their
supporters. ... Later Marx will continue this sarcasm by
referring to them as Saint Bruno, Saint Max (Stirner),
etc."[4]
It seems Marx and Engels also suffered from
Caiaphas syndrome because they sarcastically referred to "The
Holy Family" in relation to opponents. According to Gareth
Stedman Jones who wrote the Introduction to The Communist
Manifesto, Engels praised Bauer after Bauer's death (Marx,
Engels, 2002: 143).
" From 1839 to 1841, Bauer was a teacher, mentor
and close friend of Karl Marx, but in 1841 they came to a break. Marx,
with Friedrich Engels, had
formulated a socialist and communistic program that Bruno
Bauer firmly rejected. Marx and Engels in turn expressed their
break with Bauer in two books: Holy Family (1845) and
German Ideology (1846).... Bruno Bauer died at Rixdorf
in 1882. His younger brother, Edgar, was a German left-wing
journalist who had supported his brother's fights and was sent
to prison for his political positions. He later became a
police spy in London for the Danish government, reporting
about Karl Marx, among others.... Bauer went underground and
began to write Hegelian newspapers here and there. In this
journey he met some socialists, including Karl Marx, his former student, and Marx' new
friends, Friedrich Engels and Arnold Ruge."[5]
14 January 2016
Gareth Stedman Jones wrote "The real questions
involved in the mid 1840s debate over communism received
little mention in the Manifesto.
In particular, it would be quite impossible to detect the
crucial role played by Proudhon in initiating the search for a
modern social form that combined liberty and community."
(Marx, Engels, 2002: 163)
15 January 2016
Whilst sketching two opposing forces/groups, the
bourgeoisie and the proletariat, Marx and Engels (2002:
223-224) wrote: "The intellectual creations of individual
nations become common property. National one-sidedness and
narrow-mindedness become more impossible, and from the
numerous national and local literatures, there arises a world
literature."
22 January 2016
It seems thus as if Marx and Engels regarded
intellectual property in a national sense. As if they do not
appreciate utilitarianism, but because Caiaphas syndrome was
relevant they could not ascribe generation of ideas to
individuals. The spirit of a nation (Hegelian?) was probably
then to them important in the process of generations of ideas.
On the other hand they promoted international workers' action,
but the motive was international revolution to overthrow
bourgeois production tactics.
15 January 2016 (continue)
About the bourgeoisie, they wrote: "It compels
all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois
mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls
civilization into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois
themselves. In one word, it creates a world after
its own image [own italics]. The bourgeoisie has
subjected the country to the rule of the towns." (Marx,
Engels, 2002: 224)
Marx and Engels described the bourgeoisie as a
class closely linked to creativity, innovation and development
of new products and production techniques. (Marx, Engels,
2002: 225)
"The less the skill and exertion of strength
implied in manual labour, in other words, the modern industry
becomes developed, the more is the labour of men superseded by
that of women." (Marx, Engels, 2002: 228) Ascribing creativity
to femininity, another sign of Caiaphas syndrome.
"All property relations in the past have
continually been subject to historical change consequent upon
the change in historical conditions.
The French Revolution, for example, abolished
feudal property in favour of bourgeois property." (Marx,
Engels, 2002: 235)
"All objections urged against the Communistic
mode of producing and appropriating material products, have,
in the same way, been urged against the Communistic modes of
producing and appropriating intellectual products." (Marx,
Engels, 2002: 238)
"The bourgeois family will vanish as a matter of
course when its complement vanishes, and both will vanish with
the vanishing of capital." (Marx, Engels, 2002: 239)
"The Communists have no need to introduce
community of women; it has existed almost from time
immemorial... Bourgeois marriage is in reality a system of
wives in common and thus, at the most, what the Communists
might possibly be reproached with, is that they desire to
introduce, in substitution for a hypocritically concealed, an
openly legalized community of women. For the rest, it is
self-evident that the abolition of the present system of
production must bring with it the abolition of the community
of women springing from that system, i.e., of prostitution
both public and private." (Marx, Engels, 2002: 240)
"What else does the history of ideas prove, than
that intellectual production changes in character in
proportion as material production is changed? The ruling ideas
of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling class."
(Marx, Engels, 2002: 241)
Whist discrediting socialists Marx and Engels did
not appreciate, they wrote about "Critical-Utopian Socialism
and Communism" that; "Historical action is to yield to their personal inventive
[own italics] action,
historically created conditions of emancipation to fantastic
ones, and the gradual, spontaneous class organization of the
proletariat to an organization of society specially contrived
by these inventors
[own italics]... They still dream of experimental realization
of their social Utopias .. of the New Jerusalem -- and to
realize all these castles in the air, they are compelled to
appeal to the feelings and purses of the bourgeois." (Marx,
Engels, 2002: 254-256)
16 January 2016
"Science, generally speaking, costs the
capitalist nothing, a fact that by no means prevents him from
exploiting it." (Marx
1990:508) In the same way that Marx and Engels above in the Communist Manifesto
wrote negatively about "inventors", Marx, here, said
capitalists did not value the work of scientists. Pienaar
understands what he means, but Marx's meaning is contradicting
because on the one hand he writes negatively about innovation
but on the other hand, he criticizes capitalism because
capitalists do not ascribe value to science/ideas.
Inventors/scientists also have living expenses, which must be
financed. The scientific applications, which use nature he
wrote about, did not fall out of the air, and new inventions,
which are or should be financed, take place continuously. It
is this view of Marx, also prevalent at some capitalists,
which partly caused "the stranger" of Kearney, "the other",
"the individual" of the humanities. Coletto, with his
philosophy against progress, is a good example of current
views, which are similar to part of Marx's views. Marx blamed
capitalists for joblessness. Capitalist politicians still
place much attention on job creation although jobs are
becoming less, due to innovation. The current Davos congress
in Switzerland promotes a "4th Industrial Revolution" with
artificial intelligence, whilst capitalist politicians do not
acknowledge the impact on job opportunities. Marx should have
criticized the politicians more than "inventors" because the
politicians did not keep track with innovation through their
policies. There can never be enough 'jobs' (current definition
of 'job') for everybody except, in an apocalyptic
eschatological view where catastrophes balance population
numbers with job opportunities. Marx promoted revolution by
force in line with apocalyptic views and he promoted a world
in which a man can fish and hunt on the same day, similar to
ancient societies. Politicians should rather make available,
food, accommodation, sports and arts facilities, etc. to the
unemployed, for them to have a dignified life. Some people,
with sports and arts, these days, contribute much to GDPs.
Dignity should not be coupled 'solely' with being 'employed'.
Dignity brings population growths down. Modern Western
countries showed this. It can also be argued that there was
more 'dignity' amongst old American Indian societies and
African societies, before colonization, than after, resulting
in sustainable population growths and therefore the imbalance
between subsistence and population numbers was not then such a
big problem. Dignity, perhaps comes thus before sustainable
population growths.
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Ideas can be common property in reality, if
everyone has dignity via financial security, and dignity
according to their abilities, because, then there are no needs
to get financial security from ideas. If a group of people are
working together and they all have financial security and
dignity, according to their means, they can freely share ideas
and work together on the development of those ideas. If some
of the group are excluded from financial security and dignity
and an excluded generates a good idea he/she might not share
in the desserts following the idea. The desserts are the
financial security and the dignity the idea will bring.
Therefore, he/she can withhold the idea from the group. It
seems thus that in a community where everyone has dignity and
financial security, ideas will flow more freely. Problems
however occur if people each want to be seen as a generator of
good ideas, even if they aren't. If an idea wasn't, "it was my
idea", they each can claim. Then deceivers can portray
themselves as generators of ideas, which they appropriated
from others, which will inhibit free flow of ideas. On the
other hand, in a community with dignity and financial
security, maybe, ideas will not be forthcoming, because of the
financial security and dignity. Maybe that is what happened in
pre-colonial America and Africa and that is why science did
not progress there. This view however, Pienaar doubts because
much innovation took place by people with financial security
and dignity in the past, for example in Europe. It could also
be that in pre-colonial America and Africa there was not
enough correspondence to reality to cause scientific
inventions.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
"Machinery, like every other component of
constant capital, creates no new value, but yields up its own
value to the product it serves to beget." (Marx 1990:509)
According to Marx, machines add not value because machines do
not need subsistence like people. People add value when they
work longer than the hours they need to work to supply
themselves with necessary subsistence, according to Marx.
"'If', dreamed Aristotle, the greatest thinker of
antiquity,.. And Antipater, a Greek poet of the time of
Cicero, hailed the waterwheel for grinding corn, that most
basic form of all productive machinery, as the liberator of
female slaves and the restorer of the golden age. Oh those
heathens! They understood nothing of political economy and
Christianity, as the learned Bastiat discovered, and before
him the still wiser MacCulloch." (Marx 1990:532-533)
26 January 2016
Whilst Marx explained his opinion about how
capital form after an investment of £10,000 and a production
process, which caused profit of £2,000, he wrote: "The
original capital was formed by the advance of £10,000. Where
did its owner get it from? 'From his own labour and that of
his forefathers', is the unanimous answer of the spokesmen of
political economy. And, in fact, their assumption appears to
be the only one consonant with the laws of commodity
production. But it is quite otherwise with regard to the
additional capital of £2,000. We know perfectly well how that
originated. There is not one single atom of its value that
does not owe its existence to unpaid labour." (Marx 1990:728)
Marx clearly did not consider the value of ideas and not even
the value of networking here. An idea and a network of the
capitalist, employing the labour could have contributed
substantially to the £ 2 000.
28 January 2016
"We arrive, therefore, at this general result: by
incorporating with itself the two primary creators [own bold]
of wealth, labour-power and land, capital acquires a power of
expansion that permits it to augment the elements of its
accumulation beyond the limits apparently fixed by its own
magnitude, or by the value and the mass of the means of
production which have already been produced, and in which it
has its being." (Marx 1990:752)
"Like the increased exploitation of natural
wealth resulting from the simple act of increasing the
pressure under which labour-power has to operate, science and
technology give capital a power of expansion which is
independent of the given magnitude of the capital actually
functioning. They react at the same time on that part of the
original capital which has entered the stage of its renewal.
This, in passing into its new shape, incorporates, free of
charge, the social advances made while its old shape was being
used up." (Marx 1990:754) Marx realised the value of free
ideas, but he wrote negatively about innovation. During his
time labour practices were very inhuman and logically there
were other problems than remuneration for ideas, which he and
communists prioritised. If they prioritised good ideas,
without falling for Caiaphas syndrome, maybe matters could
have been different in Communist Russia.
"Since past labour always disguises itself as
capital, i.e. since the debts owed to the labour of A, B, C
etc. are disguised as the assets of the non-worker X,
bourgeois citizens and political economists are full of praise
for the services performed by past labour, which, according to
that Scottish genius MacCulloch, ought indeed to receive a
special remuneration in the shape of interest, profit, etc.[6]"(Marx
1990:757)
Marx seems to have been in two minds about MacCulloch because
some places he praises him, maybe sarcastically, and elsewhere
he does not agree with MacCulloch.
"Let me remind the reader here that I was the
first to use the categories 'variable capital' and 'constant
capital'." (Marx 1990:760) Variable capital was used by Marx
to refer only to labour. Variable material, in today's cost
accounting language, for example, was regarded as constant
capital by Marx.
30 January 2016
"Capital can grow into powerful masses in a
single hand in one place, because in other places it has been
withdrawn from many individual hands. In any given branch of
industry centralization would reach its extreme limit if all
the individual capitals invested there were fused into a
single capital.[7]
In a given society this limit would be reached only when the
entire social capital was united in the hands of either a
single capitalist or a single capitalist company." (Marx
1990:779) This "social capital" Marx refers to is basically
knowledge as represented by technologically advanced machinery
and methods. His view of capitalist ends is thus a return to a
feudalistic type of environment in which kings of territories
and church leaders of territories controlled the intellectual
creativities, which were generated by different people. His
view is thus an apocalyptic Christian view.
"The additional capitals formed in the normal
course of accumulation (see Chapter 24, Section 1) serve above
all as vehicles for the exploitation of new inventions and
discoveries, and industrial improvements in general. But in
time the old capital itself reaches the point where it has to
be renewed in all its aspects, a time when it sheds its skin
and is reborn like the other capitals in a perfected technical
shape, in which a smaller quantity of labour will suffice to
set in motion a larger quantity of machinery and raw material.
The absolute reduction in the demand for labour which
necessarily follows from this is obviously so much the
greater, the higher the degree to which the capitals
undergoing this process of renewal are already massed together
by virtue of the movement towards centralization." (Marx
1990:780) Someone recently on one of the big DSTV
international news channels highlighted a problem of few jobs
by recognizing that when machines do most production and few
people earn salaries, few people can buy products, with a
negative effect on economies. A question can be asked whether
this could lead to less food production and more production of
luxury products for the few who are earning income.
1 February 2016
"Earl Shaftesbury, then Lord Ashley, was the
protagonist of the aristocratic philanthropic campaign against
the factories. ... The villages are the property of Mr G.
Bankes and the Earl of Shaftesbury. It will be noted that,
just like Bankes, the pope of the Low Church, the head of the
English pietists, also pockets a large part of the miserable
wages of the labourers under the pretext of the rent of their
houses." (Marx 1990:831) Thomas Maier of Draftex, Viersen,
Germany told me that all their employees are subject to
involuntary "tax" deductions from their salaries, which are
paid over to the Church. This statement by Marx can perhaps be
understood together with my opinion that churches are often
glorified labour brokers. Coupled with the gathering of ideas
and consequential development as understood with Socrates's
statements in the Republic about 'gods' who generate good
ideas, the statements of Maier and Marx get new meaning.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
3 February 2016
Hitler started his book by explaining the
discrepant conditions, which the upper class and lowest class
lived under, in Vienna. The conditions explained are similar
to the conditions Marx explained.
"What affected us most bitterly was the
consciousness of the fact that this whole system was morally
shielded by the alliance with Germany, whereby the slow
extirpation of Germanism in the old Austrian Monarchy seemed
in some way to be more or less sanctioned by Germany herself.
Habsburg hypocrisy, which endeavoured outwardly to make the
people believe that Austria still remained a German State,
increased the feeling of hatred against the Imperial House and
at the same time aroused a spirit of rebellion and contempt."
(Hitler 1939:27)
"The Goddess
of Fate [own bold] clutched me in her hands and often
threatened to smash me; but the [own bold] will grew stronger as the
obstacles increased, and finally the will triumphed. ... It
was during this period that my eyes were opened to two perils,
the names of which I scarcely knew hitherto and had no notion
whatsoever of their terrible significance for the existence of
the German people. These two perils were Marxism and Judaism."
(Hitler 1939:31)
"Just as Nature
[own bold] concentrates its greatest attention, not to the
maintenance of what already exists but on the selective
breeding of offspring in order to carry on the species, so in
human life also it is less a matter of artificially improving
the existing generation--which, owing to human
characteristics, is impossible in ninety-nine cases out of a
hundred--and more a matter of securing from the very start a
better road for future development. During my struggle for
existence in Vienna I perceived very clearly that the aim of
all social activity must
never be merely charitable relief [own bold], which is
ridiculous and useless, but it must rather be means to find a
way of eliminating the fundamental deficiencies in our
economic and cultural life--deficiencies which necessarily
bring out the
degradation of the individual [own bold] or at least
lead him towards such degradation. ... When the individual [own
bold] is no longer burdened with his own consciousness of
blame in this regard, then and only then will he have that
inner tranquillity and outer force to cut off drastically and
ruthlessly all the parasite growth and root out the weeds."
(Hitler 1939:38) It looks as if Hitler's reference to "the
individual" could mean he also suffered from Caiaphas
syndrome, especially read together with his statement about
"consciousness of blame" about degradation.
Hitler did not agree with the views of manual
labourers and was thrown and intimidated off a building site,
where he worked. (Hitler 1939:46)
"The psyche
of the broad masses is accessible only to what is strong and
uncompromising. Like a woman whose inner sensibilities are not
so much under the sway of abstract reasoning but are always
subject to the influence of a vague emotional longing for the
strength that completes her being, and who would rather bow to
the strong man than dominate the weakling--in like manner the
masses of the people prefer the ruler to the suppliant and are
filled with a stronger sense of mental security by a teaching
that brooks no rival than by a teaching which offers them a
liberal choice." (Hitler 1939:48) This statement makes it seem
as if Hitler did not have a powerful God, although he did
appreciate "abstract" reason, which is a contradiction.
"The Jewish doctrine of Marxism repudiates the
aristocratic principle of Nature and substitutes for it the
eternal privilege of force and energy, numerical mass and its
dead weight. Thus it denies the individual worth of the human
personality, impugns the teaching that nationhood and race
have a primary significance, and by doing this it takes away
the very foundations of human C existence and human
civilization." (Hitler 1939:65-66) The capital "C" after
"human" was typed at the bottom left corner of p. 65; "human"
is thus the last word on p. 65.
"And so I believe to-day that my conduct is in
accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator. In standing
guard against the Jew I am defending the handiwork of the
Lord." (Hitler 1939:66)
"Apart from the new artistic trash, which might
easily have been produced by a negro tribe, all genuine
artistic inspiration came from the German section of the
population." (Hitler 1939:71) Hitler was without a doubt
racist.
"Does anybody honestly believe that human
progress originates in the composite brain of the majority and
not in the brain
of the individual
[own bold] personality." (Hitler 1939:79) Why not brains of
individuals' personalities?
4 February 2016
"Here, as everywhere else, strength does not lie
in defence but in attack." (Hitler 1939:133) According to my
logic God are the strongest force and only attack if attacked.
Is provoking attacking? It depends on the intention. Was the
intention to "start a fight"? A party who started a fight is a
guilty party. In law provocation can be assault.
"If we consider the question of what those forces
actually are which are necessary to the creation and
preservation of a State, we shall find that they are: The
capacity and readiness to sacrifice the individual to the
common welfare." (Hitler 1939:138) Earlier in the book Hitler
wrote that States exist for individuals and individuals not
for States or something in that line, which seems like a
contradiction, with regard to his opinion about sacrifice of
individuals.
"Marxism, whose final objective was and is and
will continue to be the destruction of all non-Jewish national
States, had to witness in those days of July 1914 how the
German working classes, which it had been unveigling (sic),
were aroused by the national spirit and rapidly ranged
themselves on the side of the Fatherland." (Hitler 1939:150)
It is difficult to understand this statement because Marx
opposed capitalism clearly. Jewish business is very much part
of capitalism.
6 February 2016
Hitler referred often to "Weltanschauung", which
was explained by James Murphy, the translator, to be an
""Outlook on the World"". Murphy wrote it is a "totalitarian"
view for example "Christianity" and "Mohammedanism". (Hitler
1939:13) It thus relates to the tension between nominalism and
realism. Hitler's totalitarianism and his disrespect for
non-nationalist views is clearly visible in the book. Hitler
often refers to honesty in a positive way and wrote that Jews
in a group sense deceive, but the question remains so far
whether the honesty he writes about is understood in a
nominalist sense or a sense of realism, which allows
nominalist subjective deceits, in order to keep his
totalitarian outlook in place. Up to page 150 he has not
addressed this question. It seems, so far, that he did not
realise no one can ever perceive the whole of the world as a
datum. Individuals like him are dangerous if they gather
support. On the other hand groups can also be dangerous and in
effect "Hitler" became a group. Maybe it is how nature works;
different dangerous groups eventually wipe each other out, and
other people carry on.
"But there is something else to be said: Every Weltanschauung, whether
religious or political--and it is sometimes difficult to say
where the one ends and the other begins--fights not so much
for the negative destruction of the opposing world of ideas as
for the positive realization of its own ideas. Thus its
struggle lies in attack rather than in defence." (Hitler
1939:153) In my understanding of these words it is a
contradiction because "negative destruction" is attacking and
"positive realization" is not attacking, but rather defensive
of nature.
"The name of the new movement which was to be
founded should be such that, of itself, it would appeal to the
mass of the people; for all our efforts would turn out vain
and useless if this condition were lacking. And that was the
reason why we chose the name 'Social-Revolutionary Part,'
particularly because the social principles of our new
organization were indeed revolutionary." (Hitler 1939:180)
Hitler then carries on like Marx to say that his focus was on
living conditions due to economic policy. He wrote that the
economic policy of the time was confused because it was based
on one basic idea, which claimed that all capital is the
result of only labour. (Hitler 1939:180)
About himself as politician after the 1st World
War he took part in as a soldier Hitler (1939:183) wrote: "I
clearly saw what was developing in Germany and I realized then
that the stiffest fight we would have to wage would not be
against the enemy nations but against international capital."
7 February 2016
"It is true that a section of the German
industrialists made a determined attempt to avert the danger,
but in the end they gave way before the united attacks of
money-grabbing capitalism, which was assisted in this fight by
its faithful henchman in the Marxist movement." (Hitler
1939:201)
In "Chapter XI: Race and People" where Hitler
explained it is an unforgivable sin when "strong" people mate
with "weak" people, he wrote that all humans are subservient
to nature and 'the Creator', but he contradicted himself: "He
never creates anything
[own bold]. All he can do is to discover something. ... for
the idea itself has come only from man. Without man there
would be no human idea in this world. It is to the creative powers of
man's imagination [own bold] that such ideas owe their
existence." (Hitler 1939:240-241)
9 February 2016.
"The movement must use all possible means to
cultivate respect for the individual personality. It must
never forget that all human values are based on personal
values, and that every idea and achievement is the fruit of
the creative power of one man. ... But the Jew tries to
degrade the honour in which nations hold their great men and
women. He stigmatizes this honour as the 'cult of
personality.'" (Hitler 1939:295) It is not clear how Hitler
reconciles his previous statement about sacrifice of "the
individual" for statehood with this statement. Did he write
about self-sacrifice by "the individual" or sacrifice by
groups of individuals? With regard to Jewish media "taking the
piss" out of leaders; do they do the same with their own
leaders and 'icons'? Have not seen degrading media about
Moses, Abraham etc., for example.
10 February 2016
Whilst explaining the movement of the German
National Socialist Labour Party, Hitler wrote: "Out of the
army of millions who feel the truth of these ideas, and even
may understand them to some extent, one man must arise. This
man must have the gift of being able to expound general ideas
in a clear and definite form and, from the world of vague
ideas shimmering before the minds of the masses, he must
formulate principles that will be as clear-cut and firm as
granite. He must fight for these ideas as the only true ones,
until a solid rock of common faith and common will emerges
above the troubled waves of vagrant ideas. The general
justification of such action is to be sought in the necessity
for it and the
[own bold] individual will be justified by his success."
(Hitler 1939:320) Although most liberal arts people write
about "the individual" and mean plural, it seems Hitler
actually meant singularity here with "the individual." Those
who write in singular form and means plural are wrong because
what they write is false. Hitler's conception was false
because he did not realize the fact about weakness of
singularity.
Hitler wrote that an important difference between
his views and those of Marxism is that Marxism does not value
"individuals", without the "the". (Hitler 1939:320) It seems
he valued individualism of "individuals" but the idea of the
one and only, which was propagated by Platonic philosophy
about essence, devalues his valuing of individuals in the
plural. The two ideas are contradicting, because existence of
a one and only devalues existence of each individual who is
not a one and only. An idea, which fit together with another
idea support the other idea, it does not devalue the other
idea. Truth and love (social contract theory) are two ideas,
which work together, without degrading the other of the two
ideas. Valid social contract theory will promote protection of
each individual, irrespective of race, so that all people can
compete with one another in an ordered society.
Hitler wrote "race" is the "foundation" of a
"State"; he did not refer to social contract theory as the
foundation of a state or sovereign here, according to the view
of philosophers for example Thomas Hobbes, who gave a good
explanation of a social contract in The Leviathan, albeit
also with too much emphasis on an individual king as
sovereign. Hobbes did however acknowledge the possibility of
sovereignty in the plural form, who enforce a social contract
(Hitler 1939:320)."
Another contradiction in Hitler's discourse is
that on page 320 he seems to place ideas of his one and only
highest. On page 321 he wrote that the idea of a supreme race
is highest. What if a person or persons of another race than
Aryans, apply Hitler's ideas better than Aryans? What is
therefore Hitler's priority? Is it ideas or race? It seems it
was the idea about a supreme race. I guess Hitler would have
said that no other race would be able to apply the ideas he
was promulgating. Hitler thought about essence. If he did not
think about an essence maybe he would not have contradicted
himself. I guess i made the mistake as well before i realized
truth needs at least one other idea, love (not breaking the
law/social contract theory). Not the idea, love, nor the idea,
truth, can function on its own properly.
"The völkisch
belief holds that humanity must have its ideals, because
ideals are a necessary condition of human existence itself.
But, on the other hand, it denies that an ethical ideal has
the right to prevail if it endangers the existence of a race
that is the standard-bearer of a higher ethical ideal."
(Hitler 1939:321) With this argument Jewish people who
promulgates higher ethical ideas than Hitler's, can nullify
Hitler's ideas, with his own philosophy.
"Remarks that are made without any sense of
responsibility are thoughtlessly repeated from mouth to mouth;
and our economic welfare is continually damaged because
important methods of production are thus disclosed. Secret
preparations for our national defence are rendered illusory
because our people have never learned the duty of silence."
(Hitler 1939:347)
"A stock of knowledge packed into the brain will
not suffice for the making of discoveries." (Hitler 1939:360)
"It was our nation's tragedy to have to fight for
its existence under a Chancellor who was a dilly-dallying
philosopher." (Hitler 1939:361)
Hitler promoted honesty and creativity but what
did he mean by the words? "The first step which visibly
brought mankind away from the animal world was that which led
to the first invention. The invention itself owes its origin
to the ruses [own
bold] and stratagems which man employed to assist him in the
struggle with other creatures for his existence and often to
provide him with the only means he could adopt to achieve
success in the struggle." (Hitler 1939:370) According to
intequinism "ruses" act against root creativities because
parts cannot be assembled with non-existent ruses. Ruses can
however assist developments after imparting of ideas, but the
culture, which does that, effectively, currently, sacrifice
creators (generators of good ideas), by excluding us from
development benefits.
"Hence all inventions are the result of the
creative faculty of the individual. And all such individuals,
whether they have willed it or not, are the benefactors of
mankind, both great and small. Through their work millions and
indeed billions of human beings have been provided with means
and resources which facilitate their struggle for existence."
(Hitler 1939:321) All Hitler's references to "the Creator",
together with this statement, make him look like a
utilitarian.
"Accordingly a human community is well organized
only when it facilitates to the highest possible degree
individual creative forces and utilizes their work for the
benefit of the community. ... Such men of brains are selected
mainly, as I have already said, through the hard struggle for
existence itself. In this struggle there are many who break
down and collapse and thereby show that they are not called by
Destiny to fill the highest positions; and only very few are
left who can be classed among the elect. In the realm of
thought and of artistic creations, and even in the economic
field, this same process of selection takes place,
although--especially in the economic field--its operation is
heavily handicapped. This same principle of selection rules in
the administration of the State and in that department of
power which personifies the organized military defence of the
nation. ... It is only in political life that this very natural principle
[own bold] has been completely excluded. ... The destructive
workings of Judaism in different parts of the national body
can be ascribed fundamentally to the persistent Jewish efforts
at undermining the importance of personality among the nations
that are their hosts and, in place of personality,
substituting the domination of the masses." (Hitler 1939:372)
"We National Socialists regarded our flag as
being the embodiment of our party programme. The red expressed
the social thought underlying the movement. White the national
thought. And the swastika signified the mission allotted to
us--the struggle for the victory of Aryan mankind and at the
same time the triumph of the ideal of creative work which is
in itself and always will be anti-Semitic." (Hitler 1939:411)
----------------------------------------------------------
15 February
2016
"The prelude to the revolution that laid the
foundation of the capitalist mode of production was played out
in the last third of the fifteenth century and the first few
decades of the sixteenth. A mass of 'free' and unattached
proletarians was hurled onto the labour-market by the
dissolution of the bands of feudal retainers, who, as Sir
James Steuart correctly remarked, 'everywhere uselessly filled
house and castle'. Although the royal power, itself a product
of bourgeois development, forcibly hastened the dissolution of
these bands of retainers in its striving for absolute
sovereignty, it was by no means the sole cause of it. It was
rather that the great feudal lords, in their defiant
opposition to the king and Parliament, created an incomparably
larger proletariat by forcibly driving the peasantry from the
land, to which the latter had the same feudal title as the
lords themselves, and by usurpation of the common lands."
(Marx, 1990:878)
"Tuckett knew that the large-scale wool industry
had sprung, with the introduction of machinery, from
manufacture proper and from the destruction of rural or
domestic manufactures (Tuckett, John Debell, A History of the Past
and Present State of the Labouring Population, including the
Progress of Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce, Vol 1,
London 1846. pp. 139-144) 'The plough, the yoke, were the
invention of gods, and the occupation of heroes; are the loom,
the spindle, the distaff, of less noble parentage? You sever
the distaff and the plough, the spindle and the yoke, and you
get factories and poor-houses, credit and panics, two hostile
nations, agricultural and commercial' (Urquhart, David. Familiar Words as
Affecting England and the English, London, 1855.
p.122)." (Marx, 1990:912)
"At their birth the great banks, decorated with
national titles, were only associations of private
speculators, who placed themselves by the side of governments
and, thanks to the privileges they received, were in a
position to advance money to those governments. Hence the
accumulation of the national debt has no more infallible
measure than the successive rise in the stocks of these banks,
whose full development dates from the founding of the Bank of
England in 1694. The Bank of England began by lending its
money to the government at 8 per cent; at the time it was
empowered by the Parliament to coin money out of the same
capital, by lending it a second time to the public in the form
of bank-notes. It was allowed to use these notes for
discounting bills, making advances on commodities and buying
the precious metals. ... Gradually it became the inevitable
receptacle of the metallic hoard of the country, and the
centre of gravity of all commercial credit." (Marx, 1990:919)
The average
for the class as a whole remains more or less constant, like the
value of all commodities; but this is not how it immediately
appears to the individual
worker whose wages may stand above or below this minimum. The
price of labour
sometimes sinks below and sometimes rises above the value of labour-power.
Furthermore, there is scope for variation (within narrow
limits) to allow for the worker's individuality, so
that partly as between different trades, partly in the same one, we find
that wages vary depending on the diligence, skill or strength
of the worker, and to some extent on his actual personal
achievement. Thus the size of his wage packet appears to vary
in keeping with the results of his own work and its individual
quality. This is particularly evident in the case of piece rates.
Although, as we have shown, the latter do not affect the
general relationship between capital and labour, between
necessary labour and surplus labour, the result differs for
the individual worker, and it does so in accordance with his
particular achievement. In the case of the slave, great
physical strength or a special talent may enhance his value to
a purchaser, but
this is of no concern to him. It is otherwise with the free
worker who is the owner of his labour-power."
(Marx, 1990:1032)
From the standpoint of capitalist production we
may add the qualification that labour is productive if it
directly valorizes capital, or creates surplus-value. That is
to say, it is productive if it is realized in a
surplus-value without any equivalent for the worker, its creator [own bold];
it must appear in surplus produce, i.e. an additional
increment of a commodity on behalf of the monopolizer of the
means of labour, the capitalist. (Marx, 1990:1038)
Marx acknowledged the problem whereby new
technology causes joblessness and acknowledged the difference
between the active labouring population and the inactive
population due to lack of jobs. (Marx, 1990:1049)
"All this conflicts with, for example, the
antiquated view typical of earlier modes of production
according to which the city authorities would, for instance,
prohibit inventions so as not to deprive workers of their
livelihood." (Marx, 1990:1050)
"to be crowned king of the bourgeoisie." (Marx,
1990:1051) This statement repeats Marx's previous reference,
which links monarchy and bourgeoisie systems. The criterion he
gave "to be crowned" was a sarcastic reference to lending
money to a foreign nation instead of employing workers
locally.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
16 February 2016
Maurice Cranston wrote: "He [Rousseau] had been
born in Geneva on 28 June 1712, the second son of Isaac
Rousseau, a spirited and irresponsible watchmaker of that
city." (Rousseau 1968:9). "His friend [Diderot] encouraged him
[Rousseau] to enter for the essay competition, and uphold the
opinion that the revival of the arts and sciences had only
corrupted morals. Diderot did not agree with this at all, but
he was a born journalist, and he suggested that such
unfashionable belief would distinguish Rousseau from the other
competitors and capture the prize. Diderot was right. Rousseau
submitted his essay and won; henceforth, whether he liked it
or not, he was a famous man." (Rousseau 1968:15)
Maurice Cranston wrote: "Now Rousseau not only
rejects Hobbes's claim that men must choose between being free
and being ruled, he positively asserts that it is only through
living in civil society that men can experience their fullest
freedom. This is the connexion between freedom and virtue.
Here we may detect a modification of the argument of the Discours sur l'inégalité.
In the earlier work Rousseau stresses both the freedom and the
innocence of man in a state of nature. In the Social Contract
he still says that men have freedom in the state of nature,
but he treats it as a freedom of a crude and lesser kind."
(Rousseau 1968:28)
Maurice Cranston wrote: "The jurisconsults and
Hobbes and Lcoke all rejected the well-established theories
that sovereignty was based on nature or on divine right, and
they argued in one way or another, that sovereignty derived
its authority from the assent of the people." (Rousseau
1968:30) I guess this is where the bourgeoisie comes in. They
effectively chose a king for them during those times.
Therefore logically the bourgeoisie and the church, which
crowned kings, were interlinked.
Maurice Cranston opines that Rousseau, when he
wrote in the Social Contract about "forcing a man to be free",
meant it with regard to someone who breaks "the law" or "the
general will, within him. The general will is something inside
each man as well as in society as a whole, so that the man who
is coerced by the community for a breach of the law, is, in
Rousseau's view of things, being brought back to an awareness
of his own true will." (Rousseau 1968:35)
"I have said nothing of the King Adam or of the
Emperor Noah, father of the three great monarchs who shared
out the universe between them, like the children of Saturn,
with whom some authors have identified them. I hope my readers
will be grateful for this moderation, for since I am directly
descended from one of those princes, and perhaps in the oldest
line, how do I know that if the deeds were checked, I might
not find myself the legitimate king of the human race?"
(Rousseau 1968:52)
Rousseau thought men are peaceful until property
enters the equation. "It is conflicts over things" between
nations, "not quarrels between men, which constitute war, and
the state of war cannot arise from mere personal relations,
but only from property relations." (Rousseau 1968:55) Did he
have the war of Troy in mind, with regard to Helen when he
wrote this?
"EVEN if I were to concede all that I have so far
refuted, the champions of despotism would be no better off.
There will always be a great difference between subduing a
multitude and ruling a society." (Rousseau 1968:58)
"'How to find a form of association which will
defend the person and goods of each member with the collective
force of all, and under which each individual, while uniting
himself with the others, obeys no one but himself, and remains
as free as before.' This is the fundamental problem to which
the social contract holds the solution." (Rousseau 1968:60)
"The sovereign" according to Rousseau is the
group of people who combines their powers in a single "body
politic". According to Rousseau their power is ultimate power
without any constraint. (Rousseau 1968:64) If a member thus
decides to not do what the group decide such a member "shall
be forced to be free". (Rousseau 1968:64) The problem with
Rousseau's theory is that he posits the power of the "body
politic" ultimate without restraint. They can thus sacrifice
persons outside of the group for their own gain or do
something illegal together. If a member decides to not go
along then he/she can be excommunicated, whilst being within
'the law', of having certain ideas like Truth and universal
Love above all, including the sovereign. The crux is thus
whether sovereignty is above good ideas or, good ideas above
the sovereign.
"Their very lives, which they have pledged to the
state, are always protected by it; and even when they risk
their lives to defend the state, what more are they doing but
giving back what they have received from the state? What are
they doing that they would not do more often, and at great
peril, in the state of nature, where every man is inevitably
at war and at the risk of his life, defends whatever serves
him to maintain life?" (Rousseau 1968:77)
'"Republican'": "By this word I understand not
only an aristocracy or democracy, but generally any government
directed by the general will, which is law. If it is to be
legitimate, the government must not be united with the
sovereign, but must serve it as its ministry. So even a
monarchy can be a republic" (Rousseau 1968:82)
Rousseau distinguished between "law", which is
universal and for example, decrees, which are not universal.
The "general will" of the body politic, served by the
government, is thus identified with universal laws, which are
good for every member of the sovereign (body politic). But how
is this "general will" determined? Primarily by a "lawgiver"
who writes a constitution and who acts via "Gods"; Such
lawgivers are usually not part of the body-politic, for
example Greek lawgivers who wrote constitutions for republics.
(Rousseau 1968:80-91) "Gods would be needed to give men laws."
(Rousseau 1968:84) Elsewhere Rousseau wrote that if the
body-politic do not complain, it is implied that the general
will accept something. This means only mass action can revert
a non-universal law. Also, a necessary consideration is, who
exactly is this body politic? Is "a general will" not pie in
the sky today? Rousseau appreciated the old types of
governments of small republics where all the people came
together with assemblies and discussed the issues of the time,
whilst also making laws. He wrote that monarchies suit large
republics and that there has never been a good king.
Rousseau wrote the highest and most important
law, not written down, which keeps the other laws in place
relates to, "above all, belief: this feature, unknown to our
political theorists, is the one on which the success of all
the other laws depends; it is the feature on which the great
lawgiver bestows his secret care, for though he seems to
confine himself to detailed legal enactments, which are really
only the arching of the vault, he knows that morals, which
develop more slowly, ultimately become its immovable
keystone." (Rousseau 1968:99)
"So far we have considered the prince as a
collective and artificial person, unified by the force of the
law and acting as trustee of executive power in the state."
(Rousseau 1968:116) Rousseau used metaphors, and mixed
singular and plural, which make it very difficult to determine
what he meant. Although he refers to elections, "a method
which makes honesty, sagacity, experience and all the other
grounds of popular preference and esteem further guarantees of
wise government" (Rousseau 1968:115), with regard to
aristocracy, his use of metaphors and mixing of singular and
plural, seem to have made his views incoherent. There is
however one definition he uses consistently and that is that
all the people of a state are "the sovereign" together.
Rousseau praised "Machiavelli's Prince" as a
"handbook for republicans". (Rousseau 1968:118) It is not
certain whether Rousseau subscribed to the methods, promoted
by Machiavelli in the book.
"As for despotism, instead of governing the
subjects in order to make them happy, it makes them miserable
in order to govern them." (Rousseau 1968:125)
"Just as the particular will acts unceasingly
against the general will, so does the government continually
exert itself against the sovereign. And the more this exertion
increases, the more the constitution changes for the worse,
and, as in this case there is no distinct corporate will to
resist the will of the prince and so to balance it, sooner or
later it is inevitable that the prince will oppress the
sovereign and break the social treaty." (Rousseau 1968:131) I
think this statement shows that Rousseau's views were a
precursor to communism.
On the other hand Rousseau wrote in opposition to
communism: "The cooling-off of patriotism, the activity of
private interest, the vastness of states, conquests, the abuse
of government - al these have suggested the expedient of
having deputies or representatives of the people in the
assemblies of the nation." (Rousseau 1968:141)
"I am very far from sharing received ideas: I
believe that compulsory service is less contrary to liberty
than is taxation." (Rousseau 1968:140)
18 February 2016
"Once when a man of bad character put forward a
good idea in the council of Sparta, the Ephors, ignoring him,
had the same thing proposed by a virtuous citizen. What an
honour for the one, what a disgrace for the other; yet neither
praise nor blame was given to either." (Rousseau 1968:175)
"It should be noted that it is not so much the
formal assemblies, like those of France, which bind the clergy
together in a body, but rather the communion of churches.
Communion and excommunication are the social compact of the
clergy, one through which they will always be the masters of
peoples and kings. All the priests who communicate together
are fellow citizens, even though they are at opposite ends of
the earth. This invention is a masterpiece of politics. There
was nothing like it among the pagan priests; hence they never
constituted a body of clergy." (Rousseau 1968:180)
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21 April 2016
"'TIS OF MAN I am to speak; and the very
question, in answer to which I am to speak of him,
sufficiently informs me that I am going to speak to men; for
those alone, who are not afraid of honouring truth, it belongs
to propose discussions of this kind." (Rousseau 2004:1)
"What therefore is precisely the subject of this
discourse? It is to point out, in the progress of things, that
moment, when, right taking place of violence, nature became
subject to law; to display that chain of surprising events, in
consequence of which the strong submitted to serve the weak,
and the people to purchase imaginary ease, at the expense of
real happiness." (Rousseau 2004:2)
24 April 2016
"It is therefore certain that pity is a natural
sentiment, which, by moderating in every individual the
activity of self-love, contributes to the mutual preservation
of the whole species. It is this pity which hurries us without
reflection to the assistance of those we see in distress; it
is this pity which, in a state of nature, stands for laws, for
manners, for virtue, with this advantage, that no one is
tempted to disobey her sweet and gentle voice: it is this pity
which will always hinder a robust savage from plundering a
feeble child, or infirm old man, of the subsistence they have
acquired with pain and difficulty, if he has but the least
prospect of providing for himself by any other means: it is
this pity which, instead of that sublime maxim of
argumentative justice, Do to others as you would have others
do to you, inspires all men with that other maxim of natural
goodness a great deal less perfect, but perhaps more useful,
Consult your own happiness with as little prejudice as you can
to that of others. It is in a word, in this natural sentiment,
rather than in fine-spun arguments, that we must look for the
cause of that reluctance which every man would experience to
do evil, even independently of the maxims of education."
(Rousseau 2004:21)
Rousseau seems to oppose the universal idea of
doing to others, as self wants to be done to. He replaces the
idea with pity. Pity is a patronizing emotion, which promotes
dependence. Pity is guilt from tyrannical appropriation of too
much. Being pitied is degrading and those who put others in
situations where they then pity the others get pleasure from
feeling pity, because feeling pity sometimes makes them feel
superior. Pity is an emotion of ethos opposing theos.
27 April 2016
"In this new state of things, the simplicity and
solitariness of man's life, the limitedness of his wants, and
the instruments which he had invented to satisfy them, leaving
him a great deal of leisure, he employed it to supply himself
with several conveniences unknown to his ancestors; and this
was the first yoke he inadvertently imposed upon himself, and
the first source of mischief which he prepared for his
children; for besides continuing in this manner to soften both
body and mind, these conveniences having through use lost
almost all their aptness to please, and even degenerated into
real wants, the privation of them became far more intolerable
than the possession of them had been agreeable; to lose them
was a misfortune, to possess them no happiness." (Rousseau
2004:31)
References
Hitler; A.
1939. Mein Kampf.
London: Hurst and Blackett Ltd.
Marx; K. 1990. Capital: A Critique of
Political Economy: Volume One. London: Penguin Classics
Marx; K, &
Engels; F. 2002. The Communist Manifesto. London: Penguin
Classics.
Rousseau; J.
2004. Discourse on the
Origin of Inequality. Mineola: Dover.
Rousseau; J.
1968. The Social
Contract. London: Penguin Classics.
[1] "'The man of knowledge and the productive
labourer come to be widely divided from each other, and
knowledge, instead of remaining the handmaid of labour in
the hand of the labourer to increase his productive powers
... [Marx's ellipsis] has almost everywhere arrayed itself
against labour.' 'Knowledge' becomes 'an instrument,
capable of being detouched from labour and opposed to it'
(W. Thompson, An
Inquiry into the Principles of the Distribution of
Wealth, London, 1824, p.274)" (Marx
1990:482).
[2] "A. Ferguson,
History of Civil
Society, Edinburgh, 1767, Part IV, Section ii, p.
280" (Marx 1990:474,483).
[3] "J.D.
Tuckett, A History
of the Past and Present State of the Labouring
Population, London, 1846, Vol. 1, p. 148." (Marx
1990:483)
[4] From:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holy_Family_%28book%29
on 13 January 2016.
[5] From:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Bauer on 13 January
2016.
[6] "MacCulloch took out a patent on the 'wages
of past labour' long before senior patented the 'wages of
abstinence'. (J.R. MacCulloch, The Principles of
Political Economy, London, 1825, p. 291: 'The
profits of capital are only another name for the wages of
accumulated labour.')" (Marx
1990:757)
[7] "[Note by
Engels to the fourth German edition:] The latest English
and American 'trusts' are already striving to attain this
goal by attempting to unite at least all the large-scale
concerns in one branch of industry into a single great
joint-stock company with a practical monopoly." (Marx
1990:779)