[lbo-talk] Terry Moe: the Malthusian Marxist

[Adam Proctor]

I just caught the interview with Terry Moe, and there is so much to say... but what struck me the most was how, at the end, he basically gave a perfect Marxian account of how capital functions as a system.  He made some claim as to how this can't be a capitalist conspiracy because all of the capitalists are disconnected and come from disparate backgrounds, etc. Yet similar tendencies prevail throughout the system.  He elaborated a little further, and it hit my ears like a passage from Capital vol 1.  Yet, after essentially admitting that capital has solid rules and tendencies - which must indicate that there can be some kind of analysis and indictment of the system despite the veneer of so-called "chaos" and complexity - he went on to make a turn - only better executed by Malthus, himself, in later versions of his "Essays on Population" - when he claims "Nothing can be done" to fix the disparity in the world.  The apologetic impulse in Moe is really quite remarkable.   

Sorry if that wasn't quite as articulate as it could have been, but I am still quite flabbergasted by the interview...

-Adam 

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