----- Original Message ----- From: "Charles Brown" <cbrown at michiganlegal.org> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Friday, June 29, 2007 10:58 PM Subject: [lbo-talk] Nietzsche
: Doug Henwood
:
: Charles, do you think that Marxists are just better than everyone else? Is
Preobrazhensky a greater economist than Keynes?
CB -- Marxism is political economy, not economics. To the extent that Preobrazhenski advocated the overthrow of capitalism (if he did; he may not have specifically addressed that given that others had) , Keynes advocated only reform of capitalism, P's position is better for humanity than Keynes's. The goal of revolution is qualitatively "greater" than the goal of reform of capitalism.
JD -- I agree with that judgement, which is essential to an understanding of Marxism. I would go further and say Marxism is not only not economics: it is in fact not even political economy but a *critique* of political economy -- of fetishism, of the Trinity Formula etc. -- as his original subtitle shows. Engels after Marx's death changed the subtitle to something very different, "a critical analysis of capitalist production".
J. D.