[lbo-talk] Blog activity

Ted Winslow egwinslow at rogers.com
Fri May 28 10:17:14 PDT 2010


Julio Huato wrote:


> The quote on wealth I like most is from the German Ideology though:
> Our real wealth lies in the wealth of our mutual interconnections.
> That puts a very nice spin on these lists, our get togethers,
> Facebook, Twitter, etc.

The passage in question most likely sublates Kant on the relation of the "sensus communis" to "enlightenment" (the ability "to use one's understanding without guidance from another"). http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1217&chapter=97537&layout=html&Itemid=27

"the real intellectual wealth of the individual depends entirely on the wealth of his real connections. Only then [after 'the communist revolution'] will the separate individuals be liberated from the various national and local barriers, be brought into practical connection with the material and intellectual production of the whole world and be put in a position to acquire the capacity to enjoy this all-sided production of the whole earth (the creations of man). All-round dependence, this natural form of the world-historical co-operation of individuals, will be transformed by this communist revolution into the control and conscious mastery of these powers, which, born of the action of men on one another, have till now overawed and governed men as powers completely alien to them." http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01a.htm

As I've pointed out before, Marx connects lack of "enlightenment" in the form of "prejudice" and "superstition" to "isolation." He invokes this lack to explain "despotism," an explanation found as early as his 1843 letter to Ruge and as late as his 1881 draft letter to Vera Zasulich.

"There is one characteristic of the 'agricultural commune' in Russia which afflicts it with weakness, hostile in every sense. That is its isolation, the lack of connexion between the life of one commune and that of the others, this localised microcosm which is not encountered everywhere as an immanent characteristic of this type but which, wherever it is found, has caused a more or less centralised despotism to arise on top of the communes." http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1881/03/zasulich1.htm

A significant degree to "enlightenment" as "developed powers" ("the development of individuality," "the integral development of every individual producer") is also made a prerequisite for the transition to "the form of economy which will ensure, together with the greatest expansion of the productive powers of social labour, the most complete development of man."

Marx turns out to have been mistaken about the relation of "real connections" to "enlightenment."

It's less clear, though, that he was mistaken about the relation of "enlightenment" to the creation of this "form of economy" or about the relation of "prejudice" and "superstition" to "despotism."

Ted



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