So I'm reading this book....

[DiggerII]

I picked up this book called "A history of world communism" and the author literally spends the first hundred pages slandering marx and engels saying that they venerated themselves as infallible prophets. The evidence he uses to support the claims is that because they criticized other thinkers, they were arrogant pricks. Are these claims at all substantial?

[Pawn Power]

Not that one shouldn't read critiques of Marx, or anyone person or ideology for that matter, but this book seems like a pure anti-communist smear so I would just stop wasting your time.

To say that Marx venerated himself because he criticized others is preposterous. In effect the author is doing the same so he must be making himself out to be a profite!
A claim like that is not substantial at all.

To be sure, there are legitimate critiques of Marx but this book, from what little you said, seems to be rubish.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Marx and Engels have been subjected to 150 years of such stuff, and the critics often apply standards of criticism to them they'd never dream of applying to anyone else.

It's all part of the class war -- ideologically rubbish our side, and thus remove the threat of revolution.

Some hope...!

[Janus]

The evidence he uses to support the claims is that because they criticized other thinkers
So did every theorist back then and now. Yeah some of their arguements got pretty ugly but Marx always emphasized critical/free thinking and neither of them ever considered or called themselves "infallible prophets".

[MarcX]

Originally posted by Pawn [email protected] 29, 2007 05:09 am
Not that one shouldn't read critiques of Marx, or anyone person or ideology for that matter, but this book seems like a pure anti-communist smear so I would just stop wasting your time.

To say that Marx venerated himself because he criticized others is preposterous. In effect the author is doing the same so he must be making himself out to be a profite!
A claim like that is not substantial at all.

To be sure, there are legitimate critiques of Marx but this book, from what little you said, seems to be rubish.
the most important thing is to make your opinion in a educated fashion if the book seems biased which it may well be. don't ignore everything but take it with a grain of salt or half a cup :P

read some leftist counter arguments and see which one you really think is more true

[bezdomni]

"No seriously, I am the one true prophet. Now render unto me all of thy capital!"

-Marx, The Communist Manifesto, pp. 22-23

[Devrim]

they were arrogant pricks.
That is certainly the impresion I get about Marx from what I have read about him as a man.
What does it have to do with the extraction of surplus value though.
Devrim

[Pawn Power]

Originally posted by MarcX+June 29, 2007 03:32 pm--> (MarcX @ June 29, 2007 03:32 pm)
Pawn [email protected] 29, 2007 05:09 am
Not that one shouldn't read critiques of Marx, or anyone person or ideology for that matter, but this book seems like a pure anti-communist smear so I would just stop wasting your time.

To say that Marx venerated himself because he criticized others is preposterous. In effect the author is doing the same so he must be making himself out to be a profite!
A claim like that is not substantial at all.

To be sure, there are legitimate critiques of Marx but this book, from what little you said, seems to be rubish.
the most important thing is to make your opinion in a educated fashion if the book seems biased which it may well be. don't ignore everything but take it with a grain of salt or half a cup :P

read some leftist counter arguments and see which one you really think is more true [/b]
"more true" ? :huh:

[MarcX]

no idea is perfect

[Pawn Power]

Originally posted by [email protected] 03, 2007 01:23 am
no idea is perfect
'Perfect' does not equal 'true'.

And why waste your time reading something much less true and or even not true?

Surely there are truer critiques of Marx that one does not have to waste there time reading any piece of rubish just to find some micrscopic 'true' particle.