20.1.07
Engels the stockbroker
What would Friedrich Engels think of NASDAQ's proposed takeover of the London Stock Exchange?
An Engels' biographer thinks he would have welcomed it as a smashing idea (smashing capitalism, that is).
Personally, I'm not entirely convinced about the basis of the author's argument (WARNING: discussion involving Marx follows - any "Internet Leftists" who have lost their way and stumbled onto this site may want to run away). No doubt Marx and Engels (a) recognized the strengths and power of capitalism and (b) understood the historical circumstances around its beginnings and development. They had an understanding of the larger structures in history, whatever their flaws.
However, that doesn't mean that they would have adopted a passive attitude to any and all developments, a kind of fatalist "it-will-turn-out-alright-in-the-end" attitude. No, there was also an important place for the action of the individual in the writings of Marx and Engels, no matter how constrained by historical circumstances.
I'm not sure how far the author intended it, but the "inevitability of capitalism's demise" premise seems the guide the article. Perhaps the biography would clarify this point.
What would Friedrich Engels think of NASDAQ's proposed takeover of the London Stock Exchange?
An Engels' biographer thinks he would have welcomed it as a smashing idea (smashing capitalism, that is).
Personally, I'm not entirely convinced about the basis of the author's argument (WARNING: discussion involving Marx follows - any "Internet Leftists" who have lost their way and stumbled onto this site may want to run away). No doubt Marx and Engels (a) recognized the strengths and power of capitalism and (b) understood the historical circumstances around its beginnings and development. They had an understanding of the larger structures in history, whatever their flaws.
However, that doesn't mean that they would have adopted a passive attitude to any and all developments, a kind of fatalist "it-will-turn-out-alright-in-the-end" attitude. No, there was also an important place for the action of the individual in the writings of Marx and Engels, no matter how constrained by historical circumstances.
I'm not sure how far the author intended it, but the "inevitability of capitalism's demise" premise seems the guide the article. Perhaps the biography would clarify this point.
