Monday, September 15, 2014

'Men in Dark Times' by Hannah Arendt

is available on line. Read a couple of the portraits including the second one about Rosa Luxemburg. Here is more recent one Red Rosa by Paul Le Blanc. Excerpts
"As suggested above, it can be argued that capitalism is more complex, more
dynamic than Luxemburg allows. Beyond this, there is more truth than
she seems aware in her assertion that ‘the accumulation of capital, as an
historical process, depends upon non-capitalist social strata and forms of
social organization.’ Non-capitalist regions of the globe are certainly the
target of capitalist penetration and degradation for the sake of maximizing
profits – but such penetration is also relentlessly taking place in the
multifaceted non-capitalist aspects of our lives and environment, within
highly developed capitalist countries. "
"Regardless of powerful criticisms leveled at Luxemburg’s
Accumulation of Capital, her discussion of the workings and impacts of
imperialism clearly retain considerable validity. Modern economist Joan
Robinson once commented, after an extremely critical survey of The
Accumulation of Capital, that ‘for all of its confusions and exaggerations,
this book shows more prescience than any orthodox contemporary could
claim’ "

1 comment:

Rahul Banerjee said...

as I always say, the capitalists have read and understood Marx's analysis of the dynamics of capital accumulation much better than we who wish to overthrow it have!!!