[Marxism-Thaxis] Fundamental difference: Caudwell critique's bourgeois concept of individual liberty
http://www.marxists.org/archive/caudwell/index.htm Christopher Caudwell 1938 Liberty A study in bourgeois illusion Source: “Studies in a Dying Culture,” first published 1938. Republished 1977 in “The Concept of Freedom,” Lawrence Wishart, London. Transcribed: by Dominic Tweedie; Proofed and corrected: by Guy Colvin, November 2005. Many will have heard a broadcast by H. G. Wells in which (commenting on the Soviet Union) he described it as a “great experiment which has but half fulfilled its promise,” it is still a “land without mental freedom.” There are also many essays of Bertrand Russell in which this philosopher explains the importance of liberty, how the enjoyment of liberty is the highest and most important goal of man. Fisher claims that the history of Europe during the last two or three centuries is simply the struggle for liberty. Continually and variously by artists, scientists, and philosophers alike, liberty is thus praised and man’s right to enjoy it imperiously asserted. I agree with this. Liberty does seem to me the most important of all generalised goods – such as justice, beauty, truth – that come so easily to our lips. And yet when freedom is discussed a strange thing is to be noticed. These men – artists, careful of words, scientists, investigators of the entities denoted by words, philosophers scrupulous about the relations between words and entities – never define precisely what they mean by freedom. They seem to assume that it is quite a clear concept, whose definition every one would agree about. Yet who does not know that liberty is a concept about whose nature men have quarrelled perhaps more than any other? The historic disputes concerning predestination, Karma, Free-Will, Moira, salvation by faith or works, determinism, Fate, Kismet, the categorical imperative, sufficient grace, occasionalism, Divine Providence, punishment and responsibility, have all been about the nature of man’s freedom of will and action. The Greeks, the Romans, the Buddhists, the Mahomedans, the Catholics, the Jansenists, and the Calvinists, have each had different ideas of liberty. Why, then, do all these bourgeois intellectuals assume that liberty is a clear concept, understood in the same way by all their hearers, and therefore needing no definition? Russell, for example, has spent his life finding a really satisfactory definition of number and even now it is disputed whether he has been successful. I can find in his writings no clear definition of what he means by liberty. Yet most people would have supposed that men are far more in agreement as to what is meant by a number, than what is meant by liberty. The indefinite use of the word can only mean either that they believe the meaning of the word invariant in history or that they use it in the contemporary bourgeois sense. If they believe the meaning invariant, it is strange that men have disputed so often about freedom. These intellectuals must surely be incapable of such a blunder. They must mean liberty as men in their situation experience it. That is, they must mean by liberty to have no more restrictions imposed upon them than they endure at that time. They do not – these Oxford dons or successful writers – want, for example, the restrictions of Fascism, that is quite clear. That would not be liberty. But at present, thank God, they are reasonably free. Now this conception of liberty is superficial, for not all their countrymen are in the same situation. A, an intellectual, with a good education, in possession of a modest income, with not too uncongenial friends, unable to afford a yacht, which he would like, but at least able to go to the winter sports, considers this (more or less) freedom. He would like that yacht, but still – he can write against Communism or Fascism or the existing system. Let us for the moment grant that A is free. I propose to analyse this statement more deeply in a moment, and show that it is partial. But let us for the moment grant that A enjoys liberty. Is B free? B is a sweated non-union shop-assistant of Houndsditch, working seven days of the week. He knows nothing of art, science, or philosophy. He has no culture except a few absurd prejudices, his elementary school education saw to that. He believes in the superiority of the English race, the King’s wisdom and loving-kindness to his subjects, the real existence of God, the Devil, Hell, and Sin, and the wickedness of sexual intercourse unless palliated by marriage. His knowledge of world events is derived from the News of the World, on other days he has no time to read the papers. He believes that when he dies he will (with luck) enter into eternal bliss. At present, however, his greatest dread is that by displeasing his employer in some trifle, he may become unemployed. B’s trouble is plainly lack of leisure in which to cultivate freedom. C does not suffer from this. He is an unemployed middle-aged man. He is free for 24 hours a day. He is free to go
[Marxism-Thaxis] Fundamental difference: Estranged Labour has individual life as its purpose; self-interested individual, etc.
The role of the existential sensibility in one's overall world view and trajectory is vital to understand, as well as the appropriation of the metaphysical/epistemological baggage to support one's projects. The modern period, which of course witnesses the scientific revolution, the Enlightenment, the rebellion against feudal authority, clericalism, and metaphysics, and the emergence of the bourgeoisie, also sees the emergence of the individual as a self-conscious entity. ^^^ CB: Not surprising. The individual gets irritated or alienated out by capitalist estrangement .( See Marx's Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 on this alienation or estrangement process) Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. Karl Marx Estranged Labour http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/labour.htm In estranging from man (1) nature, and (2) himself, his own active functions, his life activity, estranged labor estranges the species from man. It changes for him the life of the species into a means of individual life. First it estranges the life of the species and individual life, and secondly it makes individual life in its abstract form the purpose of the life of the species, likewise in its abstract and estranged form CB: Estrangement produces the modern self-interested individual type among masses, not just in the ruling class, the bourgeoisie. Thus, in trying to raise working class class consciousness, Marxism has relied, paradoxically , majorly on appeal to material self-interest of individuals as a _class_ . It is difficult to avoid this riddle given the generalization of pursuit of self-interest among the masses of workers by the estrangement process. The mythical American right of pursuit of happiness reflects this. Economics' rational man reflects this. I think this issue underlies a lot of what Ted Winslow on LBO-Talk essays constantly. The rational or selfish or self-interested individual who is only in elite classes down through other modes of production in history becomes general among masses , among the wretched of the earth, with capitalist estrangement. In a sense, it makes masses of workers petit bourgeois in their ideology. This is in the sense that the bourgeoisie ,of course, have an unabashed ideology of selfishness, material self interestedness, personal and individual greed. Justification , rationalization of rich people's greed is the first cause of the purveyance and mass supply of various abstract Individualisms or individual primacy or individual determinist theories etc among the intelligentsia (organic intellectuals) of bourgeois society ( Existentialism, Libertarianism, Reaganism, Tea Partying, positivism, economic rational man, Economic Robinsinades, Christian infinite individual Soul, Monotheism, Freudianism, Hollywood personality cults, (Individual) Survival television shows, etc.). The mass demand for these forms of consciousness, the mass consumption is generated by the Estranged Labour process ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] What Would You Do With a Trillion Dollars?
What Would You Do With a Trillion Dollars? | CommonDreams.org www.commondreams.org PHILADELPHIA - January 6 - The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and National Priorities Project (NPP) are preparing to announce the six lucky winners of If I Had a Trillion Dollars (IHTD), a national video contest which asks young people to convey how they would spend the more than $1 tr ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] The Not So Great Islamist Menace
The Not So Great Islamist Menace By Dan Gardner, ...Islamists? They were behind a grand total of one attack. Yes, one. Out of 294 attacks in Europe last year. Ottawa January 5, 2011 http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/great+Islamist+menace/4058778/story.html See More The not so great Islamist menace www.ottawacitizen.com ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] India
Book Review - India Calling - By Anand Giridharadas www.nytimes.com An exploration of fundamental changes in family and class relationships, and in the very idea of what it is to be Indian. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Universal Races Congress 1911
This July will mark the centennial of the Universal Races Congress? Does anyone know of any scholarly commemorations in the works? ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] On Paul Samuleson as a tragic figure
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/varoufakis030111.html Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant www.foxymath.com Learn or Review Basic Math Browse the web faster. Download Chrome Browse the web as fast as you think. Give Google Chrome a try http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4d27c0929e92e54aeacst05vuc ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
