epistolary economics

Michael Pugliese debsian at pacbell.net
Wed Sep 5 02:37:57 PDT 2001


"In an extraordinary text written during his period of seclusion, Louis Althusser..." A more misleading circumlocution I have not seen since the days of Paul de Man's "wartime journalism"...

Brad DeLong

I've always found it a sick irony that Louis strangled his psychoanalyst wife, Helene, a hero of the French Resistance. Objectivist, anti-humanist throttles a daily reminder of subject-ivity.

The memoir, is quite readable, actually. More than "For Marx, " or, "Reading Capital." Hardbound, remainders for $4.98 at Moe's in Berkeley.

On deMan, I was aware of his ex-Socialist Uncle, Hendrik, who turned Fascist, yrs. before the scandal. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=Hendrik+de+Man+&btnG=Google+Se arch (http://www.tiac.net/users/knut/Stalin/node122.html . When the Nazis occupied Belgium, Hendrik de Man, the President of the Socialist Party, made an official declaration to praise Hitler and to announce that the arrival of the Hitlerite troops meant the `liberation of the working class'! In `The Manifesto to the Members of the POB (Belgian Workers' Party)', published in July 1940, de Man wrote:

`The war has led to the debacle of the parliamentary regime and of the capitalist plutocracy in the so-called democracies. For the working classes and for socialism, this collapse of a decrepit world, far from being a disaster, is a deliverance .... the way is open for the two causes which sum up the aspirations of the people: European peace and social justice.' )

Did not know of the notorious articles, Paul wrote for Le Soir, though! The, "Wartime Journalism, " compilation and the to and fro from the decon li critters from Univ. of Nebraska Press, I got even cheaper than the Althusser, $1.98 ! Michael Pugliese



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list