Karl Marx Is ‘Back in Vogue,’ NYT Book Reviewer Enthuses

Newsbusters ^ | August 19, 2009 - 17:35 | Scott Whitlock

[chuck_the_tv_out]

New York Times book critic Dwight Garner on Wednesday enthused over a new biography of Friedrich Engels, cooing that Marxism is “back in vogue” and adding that the founding communist comes across as a “jovial man of outsize appetites” in Tristram Hunt’s new biography “Marx’s General.”

Garner opened the review by insisting that decrying capitalism is now hip again: “Thanks to globalism’s discontents and the financial crisis that has spread across the planet, Karl Marx and his analysis of capitalism’s dark, wormy side are back in vogue.”

[chuck_the_tv_out]

[Vaquero]

[conservativeharleyguy]

NYT - Acute, Chronic, Recto-Crainal Inversion Syndrome.

[Vaquero]

[LikeLight]

How an ideology that invariably produces human misery and death on a massive scale can be “in vogue” is beyond me.

[Vaquero]

[Daisyjane69]

no foolin’

Capitalism is great.

We oughta try it sometime!

[livius]

I’ve never figured that out, either. Nowhere has Marxism ever worked, nowhere has it ever produced prosperity or peace, nowhere has it ever existed without death camps or mass extermination campaigns. I fail to see its charm.

[muir_redwoods]

As a living eye-witness to the second half of the 20th century there is no way I will ever find Marx in vogue.

I hope it's not true that every generation has to learn this lesson first hand.

[nathanbedford]

That is just because the right Marxist have not yet been in charge. Hillary and her gang know that they could do a much better job than Obama and his gang.

[ALPAPilot]

I’ve never figured that out, either. Nowhere has Marxism ever worked, nowhere has it ever produced prosperity or peace, nowhere has it ever existed without death camps or mass extermination campaigns. I fail to see its charm.

It's the same old serpent that's been around since the beginning; as Lincoln said.

Now, sirs, for the purpose of squaring things with this idea of ``don't care if slavery is voted up or voted down,'' for sustaining the Dred Scott decision, for holding that the Declaration of Independence did not mean anything at all, we have Judge Douglas giving his exposition of what the Declaration of Independence means, and we have him saying that the people of America are equal to the people of England. According to his construction, you Germans are not connected with it. Now I ask you in all soberness, if all these things, if indulged in, if ratified, if confirmed and endorsed, if taught to our children, and repeated to them, do not tend to rub out the sentiment of liberty in the country, and to transform this Government into a government of some other form. Those arguments that are made, that the inferior race are to be treated with as much allowance as they are capable of enjoying; that as much is to be done for them as their condition will allow. What are these arguments? They are the arguments that kings have made for enslaving the people in all ages of the world. You will find that all the arguments in favor of king-craft were of this class; they always bestrode the necks of the people, not that they wanted to do it, but because the people were better off for being ridden. That is their argument, and this argument of the Judge is the same old serpent that says you work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it. Turn in whatever way you will---whether it come from the mouth of a King, an excuse for enslaving the people of his country, or from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for enslaving the men of another race, it is all the same old serpent,

[kenth]

It’s only “in vogue” with the people who have benefited from capitalism and the freedom to ignore history. It is made up of those who believe they would be in charge in such a society, and those who believe they would get all their neighbors’ stuff.

A friend of mine is from the former East Germany. He went off on a guy one night who decided to wax poetic about how wonderful socialism would be when he found out where my friend was from.

[mek1959]

Agree, but isn't this how these movements start? By re-humanizing evil via what used to be (decades and decades ago) a reputable organization. We all should be very vigilant about “little” stories like this as the real goal of Ms. Garner is to make Marxism palatable again...just like the early 1900’s. We know that outcome.

[PIF]

They really need to put Stalin’s head in that graphic - the first guy killed no one, the second guy got a few after he returned to Russia, the third guy murdered 60 million, Stalin murdered 30 million, and Hussein? Will he be a philosopher or a mass murderer?

[MamaTexan]

New York Times book critic Dwight Garner on Wednesday enthused over a new biography of Friedrich Engels, cooing that Marxism is “back in vogue”

I wonder if this idiot realizes that, under socialism, the first ones into the chambers are the 'critics'.

[Stepan12]

Maybe "the Messiah" can take his advice for agricultural policy from this: Ukrainian Famine Film -- warning 54.55 min. long

[Madame Dufarge]

"It is not always clear whether Engels's misrepresentations (in Conditions of the Working Class in England) are deliberate deception of the reader or self-deception. But sometimes the deceit is clearly intentional. He used evidence of bad conditions unearthed by the Factories enquiry Commission of 1833 without telling readers that Lord Althorp's Factory Act of 1833 had been passed, and had long been in operation, precisely to eliminate the conditions the report described.

He used the same deception in handling of one of his main sources, Dr. J. P. Kay's Physical and Moral Conditions of the Working Classes Employed in the Cotton Manufacture in Manchester (1832) which had helped to produce fundamental reforms in local government sanitation; Engels does not mention them.

He misinterpreted the criminal statistics, or ignored them when they did not support his thesis. Indeed he constantly and knowingly suppresses facts that contradict his argument or explain away a particular 'iniquity' he is seeking to expose."

...In one section alone, Chapter Seven, 'The Proletariat', falsehoods, including errors of fact and transcription, occur on pages 152, 155, 157, 159, 160, 163, 165, 167, 168, 170, 172, 174, 178, 179, 182, 185, 186, 188, 189, 190, 191, 194 and 203."

Intellectuals by Paul Johnson

[Anima Mundi]

I think they say that cockroaches are the only thing that will remain alive after a nuclear attack. Coincidence?

[Vaquero]

the ones you said were responsible for little or no deaths are responsible for instigating the death of 10’s of thousands to millions. I can't cut them slack.

we will see where zer0bama goes...I see him more of a national socialist/fascist than pure Marxist...time will tell. But I hope his time is 4 years or less....I pray for his impeachment daily.

[depressed in 06]

The only thing in vogue about Karl Marx is to see what the jOker is going to do next.