h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Cor! My scrolling finger is pooped from all that.
But here I is. And wanting to ask you if you are
able to access a copy (library) of Antic Hay (1922)
by Aldous Huxley.

You said:
`I'd be genuinely interested to read the passage, actually.
The criticisms may or may be based on a proper understanding
of Marxism.`

Yes, I think you would enjoy it.

If you find a copy it`s the fourth or fifth chapter - they are
quite short six or seven pages - and the location, a bar-restaurant,
should be apparent in the first paragraph. The `argument` will
stand out.

I would be willing if necessary and if asked nicely, to transcribe
it here somewhere for you. Based on your expression of `genuine
interest`I felt obliged to come by and offer my assistance and
encouragement.

-jwf-

Ta - but don't transcribe. I shall try to Kindle it. Perhaps.

In my opinion many of the criticisms of Marxism are based on misperceptions of what it's about. In fairness...it's headspiningly complicated to get your head around properly and I change my mind about what are its most important characteristics every six months or so. If it was a little bit clearer perhaps it would have led to less trouble.

I'm currently reading 'Why Marx Was Right' by Terry Eagleton which takes some of the arguments against Marx full on. But - honest - some of us do genuinely try to be critical. The way I try to approach it is 'Is this right? Surely this can't be right!'

Here's what I was musing on last night: the idea that the condition of our freedom as individuals is the freedom of others. All in 'The Manifesto'!

>> our freedom as individuals is the freedom of others <<

Yes.
An open mind cannot function in a closed environment.
We are not our brother's keeper but his liberator.
But obviously an individual's freedom must end
where another's begins. It's a quid pro quo.
Simples.

~jwf~

I see it as a considerable advance on the liberal 'live and let live' position.

rachitic
nacreous
2 new words I learned in Antic Hay


I've had another look and Chapter 4 is indeed the scene
at the 'bistro' where several young intellectuals argue
about Life, the Uni et al.

The communist conversation is in Chap 3 where the hero,
Gumbrill, is at his haberdasher trying to convince the man
to construct a prototype of his design for trousers with an
inflatable seat.

The haberdasher says:
"When the revolution comes. Mr Gumbrill... - the great and
necessary revolution - it won't be the owning of a little
money that'll get a man in trouble. It'll be his class-habits,
his class-speech, his class-education... The Red Guards will
stop people in the street and ask them to say some such word
as 'towel'. If they call it a towel, like you and your friends,
Mt Gumbrill, why then.. he gestures pointing a rifle and pulling
the trigger; clicking his tongue against his teeth to symbolize
the report - "That'll be the end of them. But if they say 'teaul',
like the rest of us, Mr Gumbrill, it'll be 'Pass Friend and Long
Live the Proletariat'. Long live 'Teaul'."

"I'm afraid you may be right", said Gumbrill.
...

"And what good do you expect the Revolution to do, Mr Bojanus?"
he asked at last.

"None whatever, Mr Gumbrill. None whatever."

"But Liberty, equality and all that. What about those?"

...

"Political liberty is a swindle because a man doesn't spend his
time being political. He spends it sleeping, eating and amusing
himself a little and working - mostly working."

"There's no liberty in this world, only gilded cages."

Etc., etc.
I have picked at random from a longer discussion. And avoided
the major bits with dialect such as:
"There never was a greater swindle 'atched in the 'ole of 'istory."

Chapter 3. You'll enjoy it.

~jwf~

Well, ...nice bit of parody, but I can't see much relevance to the kind of things I mention.

Well yeah, it's not expressed in abstract political jargon;
it's just a dialog between a working class habersdasher and
a 'poor' gent in an Edwardian age encounter. I left the best
bits for you to discover. Like Life, it's about 'the people'
not politics.

The haberdasher's sensibilities and reflections on the state
of humanity in the modern (1922) world are still pithy and quite
insightful and relevant today.

I sorta see an older Michael Caine as the haberdasher and a
younger, prettier Terrence Stamp as Gumbrill. There's no listing
for the title at IMDb, so I guess it's up to me to produce it.

Ah well...


~jwf~

Well I'm tempted to ask why yo think I'm concerned with politics over people...but the real question is why you see them as different things?

People are individuals. Politics is collective.

People in a primitive state accept the status quo
of family and tribal relations they are born into.
If and when they don't like what is happening, they
can leave the group or take a one on one stand against
some superior individual and change their status (one
way or another).

Politics is a lot more complicated. It's people using
'appealing philosophies' and the power of numbers to
manage and control larger numbers of people and bend
them to accepting the philosophy in the name of the
greater good.

But alas, with any organisation of people, power corrupts.


~jwf~

So are we stuck as individuals, impotent against the fore of society, unable to change anything? Or can we cooperate to help one another?

The aim of Marxism, as I understand it, is not to >>manage and control larger numbers of people and bend
them to accepting the philosophy in the name of the
greater good.<<

It is to bring people to the realisation that they can - in cooperation with others - free themselves from their chains and go their own way.

'But if that's not good enough, don't vote for me.'