Written in 1867, sales of the tome rarely hit double digits but have been on the rise since 2005.
Marxist economic philosophy - and in particular its Russian Leninist version - fell out of favour with the collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s.
"It's definitely in vogue right now," said the publisher's director Joern Schuetrumpf.
"The financial crisis brought us a huge bump."
I hardly know where to start: I've read the book, and I was struck by how astute (and still relevant) his observations of the economy were and how equally bizarre his solutions to problems were. You'd have to be pretty loopy to fall for his arguments.
The thing I find most irritating about this article is how it pushes the leftist agenda.
Firstly, there's the implication that the financial crisis cannot be solved by "red in tooth and claw" capitalism. In fact, there's an implication that this has even been tried, which it fucking hasn't. So far, we've had a grossly mis-regulated market failed and the only solutions proffered have been more fucking misregulation.
"There's a younger generation of academics tackling hard questions and looking to Marx for answers," Mr Schuetrumpf said.
But he doubted their perseverance: "I doubt they will read it all the way to the end, because it's really arduous."
There's a hidden subtext that Marx offered dense and complex solutions, which may explain why it's never been successful -- people who have tried it weren't smart enough, and if we just keep trying, eventually someone smart enough will come along. Sorry, Al-jaBeeba, it's not. I read the book from cover to cover and when I got to the end I threw it across the room, not because I didn't understand it, but because it was fucking stupid.
And finally, we have the approving quotes of some has-been, should-never-have-been old fucker:
And suddenly too, some of the all-but-forgotten Marxist philosophers are having their say again, such as the historian Eric Hobsbawm.
"Globalisation, which is implicit in capitalism, not only destroys the heritage and tradition but it is incredibly unstable, it operates through a series of crises, and I think this has been recognised to be the end of this particular era," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Why aren't you telling us that sales of Mein Kampf are also up, you biased fucking left-wing dildoes? Why aren't you telling us what Heinz-Christian Strache has to say?
Can we sell these fucking cunts off so that they can stand or fall in the real world, please?
8 comments:
Saw this and blogged about it too.
Maybe we are worrying too much- 1500 copies may be a jump, but it's still fuck all.
But then, you would have to scrap the bottom of the barrel to find anything supporting Marx nowadays.
It's true, 1500 copies is nothing. And that, in a way, pisses me off even more. This is just a made-up excuse for the Beeb to spin more Trotskyite bollocks.
Cunts.
There's a left-wing bookseller down the road from me who has a stall in the market. He told me last week he has completely sold out of all copies of Das Kapital. All two of them.
There's revolution in the air…
The election results in Austria also show that fascism is back in vogue in the midst of the financial crisis. Can we expect the BBC to start gushing about that too?
'Pon my word, Eric Hobsbawm is still alive?.
Anyway, why is anybody buying it when it's online for free?
If I was buying it in book form, I'd expect a graphic novel version, but the existing one is reviewed as very poor. Francis Wheen's 'Marx's "Das Kapital": A Biography - A Book That Shook the World' is reckoned to be a readable history of the volume, setting the main ideas in their historical context. Wheen is usually easy to read and apparently argues that Marxists get Marx a bad name. He has a soft spot for the penniless scribbler with a tragic life and an uncompromising dottiness. If Marx was alive today he'd be a blogger.
If Marx was alive today he'd be a blogger.
And writing for the Liberal Conspiracy.
This copies are being purchased to "throw" at the Russian Army when they move West.
Don't laugh, Marxism held Russia back for almost a century.
No doubt socialism sounds better to many worried people these days.
But what screwed our financial systems had no relation to the capitalism Marx studied and denounced.
I bet sales of financial magazines and Keynes books are up too. All such stuff probably tracks the price of gold.
Post a Comment