----- Original Message ----- From: "andie nachgeborenen" <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com>
Trotsky gets the spirit of Marx right when at the end of Literature and Revolution, he talks about making a Goethe or a Newton and everyday type, and "beyond those heights, new alps arise." Even the alps talk is Nietzschean. Granted that is Trotsky, but he's got Marx the anti-egalitarian dead on. No leveling down, raising up, competition for glory of creation and extremes of brilliance, optimism that this can be widespread.
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This would run into positional goods problems in any institutionally complex society, no?
Some Conservatives have noted the problems that would occur regarding social conflict if everyone were as smart as G. or N. or E. or Nz. Also, Nicholas Rescher has an aside on this issue iirc.
It does have a certain Lake Wobegon feel to it though :-)
Ian