[lbo-talk] Caudwell on on language's inability to reflect the changing nature of reality

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Mon Jan 6 08:24:15 PST 2014


There is a distinction, sometimes relevant, sometimes irrelevant, between "wanting money" and "wanting the things money can buy." And there is another distinction, which (I think) becomes crucial under capitalism, between individual desire for more money & enterprise need to accumulate in order not to shrink.

And a further footnote: nothing in this thread can say anything useful about individuals as individuals. There personal history and contingency rule, and psychological propositions are too abstract to grasp Mary Q or John H.

Carrol

P.S. Caudwell was a fascinating writer, particularly in Studies in a Dying Culture, but he was a Marxist only for a couple years and his theoretical guide was Joseph Stalin. For me, Stalin is not a bogey man, but still, as a theorist he didn't have a lot to say.



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