What I Learned Today

[Fe 26]

English. I have to write a comparative analysis of three texts using a materialist frame.
I've learned SO MUCH about Marx the last few weeks. It's a shame how he's been cast a villain. He was on the money about a lot of things.

what kind of English class has you reading Marx?

My room mate is lucky if his students turn in a comparative anything. Every year he has knobs turn in book reviews for that. Or support only one point.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

The kind that I stupidly took for enjoyment, but it has been nothing but a pain in the ass. At least this prof (unlike last semester) seems to have and can display a decent grasp of the language.
I am learning to be a better writer though!
Someday, I might even put together something worth reading.

[dave is ok]

Someday, I might even put together something worth reading.

Unlike your 20,000 posts here.

omg grats on 20k

[Fe 26]

This is the truth. If you were to take Marx's words and beliefs and transfer them to a made up character, say, Jefferson P. McEagle (the P stands for Patriot) it'd poll highly.

My only real issue with Marx is that his perspective on labor and leadership was overtly negative and pessimistic. And those that came after him, ran buck wild with that negativity.

He tried to argue objectivity that labor was worth more than leadership, management or capital. And I don't think any of those 4 things can be weighted and compared with the other objectively.

[Diff-chan]

...insufferable, self-righteous leeches who, as above, greatly oversimplify the world to promote their own ends.

Sounds like neoliberals and Reaganites to me.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

I had no idea what my post count was. What skin displays it?

"The structure of the administrative state is that of a hierarchy in which every person has a place in a table of organization, a vertical position in which he is subordinate to someone and superior to someone else. This is the structure of any bureaucracy; it represents a "rationalization" of organization ideals. When an entire society is subjected to this principle, it creates a small ruling elite and a large group of workers who play no significant part in the making of decisions. While they continue to vote in political elections, they are offered little choice among the candidates; all the major decisions about what is produced, what is consumed, how resources are allocated, the conditions of work, and so forth, are made administratively."

"Public welfare offers an example of the administrative model of society. The object of public welfare, apart from administration, is to protect people against the hazards of forces in an industrial society beyond their control, and the other hazards of life against which neither family nor local community any longer offer help; to provide every person with a minimum standard of security, well-being, and dignity. With the introduction of administration and hierarchy as the means for carrying out public welfare, the emphasis shifts to regulation of exactly who is qualified for welfare, how much is allotted, how it is spent, whether regulations are being followed. A large apparatus is developed for checking up, for keeping records, for making and enforcing rules, for punishing infractions. Some of this may save money, but the money saved is minimized by the costs of administration. Some of this may also serve the purpose of punishing the poor for not working, even though many are unable to work. "

[Nick]

Diff: And 90% of anyone that writes anything on the Internet. Let's be honest.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

He tried to argue objectivity that labor was worth more than leadership, management or capital. And I don't think any of those 4 things can be weighted and compared with the other objectively.

My perspective was that he was railing against those who felt that the labor force was an unlimited resource and had no worth at all. One peasant drops from exhaustion, there's another more than willing to take his place. So fuck them all.

[Diff-chan]

Diff: And 90% of anyone that writes anything on the Internet. Let's be honest.

People on the Internet (or Marxists for that matter) haven't been the ones setting policy in this country the past 35 years or so.

[Yoshi]

The Chinese had the capability to sail to Europe before Europeans sailed to China. They just chose not to for a variety of complicated reasons.

That is what I learned.

The takeout ordered by the Europeans would have spoiled, so why bother?