In defence of Marxism - by Alain de Botton

[Monty91]

http://www.philosophersmail.com/110314-capitalism-marxism.ph p (http://www.philosophersmail.com/110314-capitalism-marxism.php)

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[Berni]

Professional philosopher, ffs! The best thing about this country is its profound contempt for abstract ideas in general and philosophers in particular. We're not bloody French, ffs!

http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/25600000/Alain-de-Botton-alain-de-botton-25621647-1514-1216.jpg

[Monty91]

though this may be because I'm too thick to understand proper philosophy :-(

[redgunamo]

[Monty91]

the refusal of the uneducated to equip themselves with practical knowledge, of which you are equally contemptuous?

[Classic Jorge]

[Berni]

of everyone's time.

[Ashberto]

People generally confuse Marxist analysis of labour and production with failed statist attempts at imposing economic alternatives to capitalism.

However important and valuable classical economics is (and it is), the nature of people's relation to their work and what they produce does get overlooked.

[Monty91]

[Ashberto]

[Ashberto]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

It didn't go well.

[Berni]

expressing and encapsulating them.

Philosophers, by contrast, spend a lot of time trying to fit the vastness of human experience into convenient little boxes with convenient little labels to show how clever they are. F*ck 'em.

[Berni]

[Ashberto]

For example: Satre = cùnt.

OTOH, if we say that Arsene Wenger has a footballing philosophy, we should be able to understand that there is also a positive meaning for the word.

[redgunamo]

[Monty91]

which doesn't sound so impressive but cab be equally valid and creditable.

[Ashberto]

[redgunamo]

[Ashberto]

Perfect for the political right-wing.

[redgunamo]

[Ashberto]

[redgunamo]

That's essentially why a certain sort of supporter loves Arsene Wenger so much.

[redgunamo]

[Dr Headgear - Wannabe viking]

Though really it's a totalitarian theme, the Khmer Rouge weren't really noted for their pursuit of philosophical meaning.

[Chief Arrowhead]

Actually reading his works it comes across much different than the positive spin Alain de Button puts on it.

Hey, I should know. I took a course on Marxism 33 years ago. :-D

[Ashberto]

but it's over the border in the old borough/parish of St Pancras, now part of Camden, where he also lived in a couple of addresses in Kentish Town, rather than Islington. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov lived in Islington though.

He may have been wrong on many things, but I don't think he wrote anything that advocated a stagnant, authoritarian and murderous state. You have to remember that the London in which he lived was the same one as Charles Dickens, of grinding poverty, squalor and inequality with a ruling class interested in nothing other than enhancing their decadent luxury at the expense of the starving masses. Both Marx and Dickens believed that the status quo was an unacceptable way for a civilised society to be organised.