Joanna Sheldon:
> Down and out though he is, he feels he is worth something. But it is not
> his brain that is worth something (perhaps he's tried marketing that,
> already, and found it wanting), it's the thing he walks around in that has
> value. The thing that holds up the dirty blue jeans, the thing that guzzles
> bad beer. It's quite wonderful, really. I'm in awe of this character.
>
> Whether or not his claim was misplaced, I don't think it is supported by
> the society he lives in. Sports professionals and prostitutes are allowed
> and encouraged to think of their bodies as capital, I suppose. But this
> guy? Considering that he respects capital, thinks it's what has value,
> it's a bloody triumph! Did you ask him what he meant?
If he was reading Locke (even indirectly), he meant the labor theory of value. That is: I am not a slave, therefore I can labor and keep at least some of the value of my product; of this, I can save some and make capital of it (capital in the sense of tools to make more wealth). So the body (including the mind within it) is the primordial item of capital.
I realize that there are many objections to this view of things; but it's the fellow in San Jose one needs to reach with these objections, not the population of lbo-talk. Unless we think the effort is worthless, of course. Such people are often very stubborn about their funny ideas. Perhaps we should just admire him at a distance.
> I like very much what you say, below, Gordon. I wish you'd elaborate on
> Humpty Dumpty.
I cannot elaborate what is perfect.
`When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful
tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more
nor less.'
The question is,' said Alice, `whether you can make words mean
so many different things.'
`The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master
-- that's all.'
-- Lewis Carroll, _Through_The_Looking_Glass_ http://www.literature.org/authors/carroll-lewis/through-the-looking-glass/chapter-06.html
This fellow may think that _capital_ means "the care and feeding of calico cats"; if we want to change his mind about it, we must overpower or seduce him in some way, because there is no "capital" up in the sky for us to point out to him.