The Antiquary by Sir Walter Scott
Essay on Metaphysics by R.G. Collingwood

Finished Liberty and Property a couple of days ago. Just finishing up the last 100 pages of Grundrisse.

Any thoughts (or clarifications, if the latter was a rereading) you can share, comrade?

Assertive Masturbation: Self Worth Through Self Knowledge, Jeremy Fornby

Yeah I'll post some thoughts after I finish, hopefully by this weekend.

Slowly but steadily, I have been working my way through Ellul's The Technological Society. This passage (among others) stood out:

Herein lies the inversion we are witnessing. Without exception in the course of history, technique belonged to a civilization and was merely a single element among a host of nontechnical activities. Today technique has taken over the whole of civilization. Certainly, technique is no longer the simple machine substitute for human labor. It has come to be the "intervention into the very substance not only of the inorganic but also of the organic."

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Metaphysics of Pragmatism by Sidney Hook

The Revolt of Masses by José Ortega y Gasset.

This was my first read of Grundrisse, and so it was interesting to compare with Capital given that the latter was an edited work, whereas Grundrisse is collected manuscript of notes that wasn't meant for publication (and was never completed anyway). So through stream of consciousness, it reveals a certain side of Marx that you don't quite see in Capital. Of course Marx develops his economic thoughts more concisely in Capital (and there's more writing on class struggle in V1), so it shouldn't be a substitute for it, but through the occasional digressions in Grundrisse he reveals more overarching thoughts about society, such as alienation, ideological production under Capitalism, and human development, and some abstract considerations for what Marx's post-Capitalist society might look like. For example, the creation of disposable time that becomes theoretically available for all under Capitalism, but, for the working class, becomes subsumed under Capitalism's raison d'etre viz., wealth accumulation. Under Marx's socialism, real wealth comes from disposable time so that all individuals may pursue their own free desires, interests, and other means that enable and fulfill self-development.

The creation of a large quantity of disposable time apart from necessary labour time for society generally and each of its members (i.e. room for the development of the individuals’ full productive forces, hence those of society also), this creation of not-labour time appears in the stage of capital, as of all earlier ones, as not-labour time, free time, for a few....

It is thus, despite itself, instrumental in creating the means of social disposable time, in order to reduce labour time for the whole society to a diminishing minimum, and thus to free everyone’s time for their own development.

But its tendency always, on the one side, to create disposable time, on the other, to convert it into surplus labour.

For real wealth is the developed productive power of all individuals. The measure of wealth is then not any longer, in any way, labour time, but rather disposable time.

A page earlier from the above, he approvingly quotes a passage from an early 19th century book,

‘Truly wealthy a nation, when the working day is 6 rather than 12 hours. Wealth is not command over surplus labour time’ (real wealth), ‘but rather, disposable time outside that needed in direct production, for every individual and the whole society.’

But I think the largest benefit of reading Grundrisse, for me, was that it threaded together Capitalist production, circulation, distribution, and consumption (which are more isolated focus points that comprise the three volumes of Capital), thereby edifying their interactivity and emphasizing the Totality of the Capitalist system, which further elucidates Capitalism as a profoundly complex mode of production and in turn has decisive effects on society and social relationships. This helped further clarify Marx's Historical Materialism for me.

Speaking of:

It is thus, despite itself, instrumental in creating the means of social disposable time, in order to reduce labour time for the whole society to a diminishing minimum, and thus to free everyone’s time for their own development. But its tendency always, on the one side, to create disposable time, on the other, to convert it into surplus labour.

For Creators, Everything Is for Sale

But as the market gets more and more competitive — and the platforms and their algorithms remain unreliable — creators are devising new, hyper-specific revenue streams.

One comes in the form of NewNew, a start-up in Los Angeles, that describes its product as creating a “human stock market.” On the app, fans pay to vote in polls to control some of a creator’s day-to-day decisions.

Courtne Smith, the founder and chief executive of NewNew, said the company was “similar to the stock market” in that “you can buy shares, which are essentially votes, to be able to control a certain level of a person’s life.”

“We’re building an economy of attention where you purchase moments in other people’s lives, and we take it a step further by allowing and enabling people to control those moments,” she said.

:death:

:clap: Great précis – especially underscoring disposable time (now I recall where I must have gotten the idea decades ago that productivity increases by 'producing the same quantity in less time' and not by 'producing a greater quantity in the same time'). Thanks, comrade!

:up: :flower:

Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric Robinson

Just broke the bank on Max Scheler:

On Feeling, Knowing, and Valuing: Selected Writings
The Constitution of the Human Being: From the Posthumous Works, Volumes 11 and 12
Selected Philosophical Essays

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xOqhJnPtLxxDBVxGNLPjjrfoxTp7-WuL/view?usp=sharing

Introduction to Metaphysics by Martin Heidegger

Apparently Heidegger conceived this work to be both a companion and the heir to Being and Time. It's been on my bookshelf for nearly a decade - overlooked gem.

Martin Heidegger — Pantagruel

If you don’t mind I want recommend you an interesting book called Heidegger and a hippo walk through those pearly gates. by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel M. Klein.
It is about the role of death in a philosophical point of view.

I don't mind at all, I appreciate the suggestion. Thank you. :)

Robert Brenner - The Boom and the Bubble: The US in the World Economy
Mckenzie Wark - A Hacker Manifesto
Various things by Leibniz (The Monadology, Discourse on Metaphysics, Principles of Nature and Grace...)

Time enough for Love by Robert Heinlen

The Psychology of Stupidity, ed. Jean-François Marmion

:rofl: :clap: :fire:

The Constitution of the Human Being by Max Scheler

Max's central writings on metaphysics and anthropology

Novel with cocaine. by M. Aguéiev.

Michael Hudson - Super Imperialism: The Origin and Fundamentals of U.S. World Dominance
Gilles Deleuze - The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque

David Harvey on the contemporary neoliberal elite:

"The question arises, and has been much debated, as to whether this new class configuration should be considered as transnational or whether it can be still understood as something based exclusively within the parameters of the nation-state.32 My own position is this. The case that the ruling class anywhere has ever confined its operations and defined its loyalties to any one nation-state has historically been much overstated. It never did make much sense to speak of a distinctively US versus British or French or German or Korean capitalist class. The international links were always important, particularly through colonial and neocolonial activities, but also through transnational connections that go back to the nineteenth century if not before. But there has undoubtedly been a deepening as well as a widening of these transnational connections during the phase of neoliberal globalization, and it is vital that these connectivities be acknowledged. This does not mean, however, that the leading individuals within this class do not attach themselves to specific state apparatuses for both the advantages and the protections that this affords them. Where they specifically attach themselves is important, but is no more stable than the capitalist activity they pursue. Rupert Murdoch may begin in Australia then concentrate on Britain before finally taking up citizenship (doubtless on an accelerated schedule) in the US. He is not above or outside particular state powers, but by the same token he wields considerable influence via his media interests in politics in Britain, the US, and Australia. All 247 of the supposedly independent editors of his newspapers worldwide supported the US invasion of Iraq. As a form of shorthand, however, it still makes sense to speak about US or British or Korean capitalist class interests because corporate interests like Murdoch’s or those of Carlos Slim or the Salim group both feed off and nurture specific state apparatuses. Each can and typically does, however, exert class power in more than one state simultaneously. While this disparate group of individuals embedded in the corporate, financial, trading, and developer worlds do not necessarily conspire as a class, and while there may be frequent tensions between them, they nevertheless possess a certain accordance of interests that generally recognizes the advantages (and now some of the dangers) to be derived from neoliberalization. They also possess, through organizations like the World Economic Forum at Davos, means of exchanging ideas and of consorting and consulting with political leaders. They exercise immense influence over global affairs and possess a freedom of action that no ordinary citizen possesses."

The Selected Writings of Pierre Hadot: Philosophy As Practice, ed. Keith Ansell Pearson

Hudson's book is not about neoliberalism. It's about political the use the U.S. has made of the fact that the dollar is effectively the world's reserve currency, and how this translates to a certain financial imperialism on their part. It was written in the 70s so it's far more about international financial institutions - the World Bank and IMF in particular.

Does it talk about how NY banks loaned money to foreign governments, waited for them to get close to default, and then came in and reorganized their economies?

It was written in the 70s so it's far more about international financial institutions - the World Bank and IMF in particular — StreetlightX

But neoliberalism is about the rise of financial institutions as central figures in the global economy. The World Bank and the IMF have been used as vehicles for it. Harvey says that in the 70s, neoliberals were learning to force change in non-democratic states and create consent in democratic ones. By the 80s, neoliberalism had already become "common sense."

I'd be interested in a 1970s viewpoint on what was happening.

I'll let you know when I'm through it a bit more. Just started.

Cool

Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon

:up:

• The Ethical Slut (3rd Edition), D. Easton & J. Hardy
• Marx: A Philosophy of Human Reality, Michel Henry
• From Communism to Capitalism: Theory of a Catastrophe, Michel Henry