Ashberto > re Botton on Marx

[Dr Headgear - Wannabe viking]

I thought it was pretty weak actually. The points listed weren't so much the conclusions of Marxism as the empirical observations that Marx attempted to explain. His theory of alienation and how/why it occurred isn't validated by pointing out that what may have been fairly radical observations at the time are widely accepted truths today. Much less the view of human nature he necessarily supposes, and still less the politico-economic mechanism he proposes to allow us to become fully human and thus not alienated from our labour.

Not to say they weren't important observations, or that he hasn't had a massive impact, or that the idea that work should be fulfilling wasn't also radical. But to say "we're all a bit Marxist" is a bit cheap.

[Ashberto]

especially if you look at Marx's proposed solutions rather than his analysis, but it's the latter that is of value imo, which the article is looking at.

The whole thing about the 'problem' that capitalism has as material production becomes more and more automated isn't going to go away. So far the rise of service industries has mitigated this but there might come a point where "If no-one worked they wouldn't paid to buy things the robots made" might become an issue.