Doug Henwood wrote:
>> Chuck's last sentence is important.
>>
>> On Sat, Aug 04, 2007 at 06:23:53PM -0500, Chuck wrote:
>>> Nader is probably a complex person like the rest of us. In the big
>>> picture, his personality is irrelevant.
>
> No it's not. It explains why he ran for president as a star turn
> rather than building a movement. It explains his paranoia about
> trade, which is way out of proportion to reality. It explains why
> he's such a dismal politician who earned a shrinking share of the
> vote on every outing. It explains why he can't work in coalition with
> anyone. The contrast between him & Rocky Anderson was really striking
> - to be a successful politician you've got to like people and be able
> to connect with them. You can't do that if you're idea of fun is
> staying in your room to read the Federal Register.
The idea that "personality is irrelevant" to the "scientific" study of social phenomena also isn't Marx's. For instance, he makes changes in the nature and role of auri sacra fames in capitalist "individuality" a key to understanding the development of capitalism. Here he is making this point by recording its reflection in changes in the dominant form of "political economy" from the "monetary system" to "mercantilism".
"Political economy came into being as a natural result of the expansion of trade, and with its appearance elementary, unscientific huckstering was replaced by a developed system of licensed fraud, an entire science of enrichment.
"This political economy or science of enrichment born of the merchants' mutual envy and greed, bears on its brow the mark of the most detestable selfishness. People still lived in the naive belief that gold and silver were wealth, and therefore considered nothing more urgent than the prohibition everywhere of the export of the 'precious' metals. The nations faced each other like misers, each clasping to himself with both arms his precious moneybag, eyeing his neighbours with envy and distrust. Every conceivable means was employed to lure from the nations with whom one had commerce as much ready cash as possible, and to retain snugly within the customs boundary all which had happily been gathered in.
"If this principle had been rigorously carried through trade would have been killed. People therefore began to go beyond this first stage. They came to appreciate that capital locked up in a chest was dead capital, while capital in circulation increased continuously. They then became more sociable, sent off their ducats as callbirds to bring others back with them, and realised that there is no harm in paying A too much for his commodity so long as it can be disposed of to B at a higher price.
"On this basis the mercantile system was built. The avaricious character of trade was to some extent already beginning to be hidden. The nations drew slightly nearer to one another, concluded trade and friendship agreements, did business with one another and, for the sake of larger profits, treated one another with all possible love and kindness. But in fact there was still the old avarice and selfishness and from time to time this erupted in wars, which in that day were all based on trade jealousy. In these wars it also became evident that trade, like robbery, is based on the law of the strong hand. No scruples whatever were felt about exacting by cunning or violence such treaties as were held to be the most advantageous.
"The cardinal point in the whole mercantile system is the theory of the balance of trade. For as it still subscribed to the dictum that gold and silver constitute wealth, only such transactions as would finally bring ready cash into the country were considered profitable. To ascertain this, exports were compared with imports. When more had been exported than imported, it was believed that the difference had come into the country in ready cash, and that the country was richer by that difference. The art of the economists, therefore, consisted in ensuring that at the end of each year exports should show a favourable balance over imports; and for the sake of this ridiculous illusion thousands of men have been slaughtered! Trade, too, has had its crusades and inquisitions." <http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/df-jahrbucher/ outlines.htm>
Ted