Process
Status Items Highlights Done See section below Claims None Questions None Output None
Highlights
Time 0:15:34
Marxist Sensibility
- Harvey Kaye avoids theoretical concepts and labels like “Marxist” or “historical materialism” due to the negative connotations and pre-conceived notions they evoke.
- However, his work is still fundamentally informed by Marx and Gramsci’s theories and sensibility.
- This underlying sensibility can be summarized by Marx’s quote: “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” Transcript: Harvey Kaye I mean, I generally like there’s another term I generally avoid historical materialism. Okay, but I can tell you, I can tell you in one line of Marx, what I think is a sort of fundamental sensibility and understanding that I bring to political and historical thinking and criticism, Everything else. The history of all hitherto existing society
Time 0:32:26
Marx vs Lenin on Workers’ Role
- Marx believed intellectuals play a role but don’t hold all the truth about achieving socialism.
- He envisioned a dialectic process where even educators need education, implying a collaborative learning approach with the workers.
- Lenin, conversely, advocated for a vanguard party that possessed the truth and guided the workers.
- Lenin felt workers alone could, at best, achieve trade unionism, not socialism. Transcript: Harvey Kaye Lenin had a different understanding than did Marx. Marx believed that intellectuals had a role, but they didn’t bear the truth unto themselves.
Time 0:57:21
Dialectics in Jewish Culture
- The Jewish intellectual tradition emphasizes argumentation as a creative process.
- The saying “Two Jews, three positions” illustrates how a proposition (thesis) inherently contains its contradiction (antithesis).
- This confrontation of ideas can lead to a new, more advanced idea (synthesis), or it may go nowhere.
- The synthesis might combine elements of both thesis and antithesis, or it could be something entirely new. Transcript: Harvey Kaye Now, what did that get at? That got at this. So somebody lays out an argument about something or a proposition. That proposition, if it’s a proposition, has a contradiction, has a counter argument. A thesis. A thesis and an antithesis, right? An antithesis. So a thesis is rendered by its very being that thesis brings into being its own antithesis, its contradiction. Now, it is possible that the confrontation of ideas will go nowhere. But it’s also quite possible that out of that confrontation of ideas, that argument, a new idea may well emerge will be better or more advanced or will take us further in understanding The world or whatever it is we’re arguing about the way they often put it is sure thesis antithesis synthesis synthesis yeah okay now the way synthesis implies elements from thesis And antithesis
Time 0:59:58
Capitalism Creates its Own Grave Diggers
- Capitalists become capitalists by employing workers and making a profit.
- They control the product of the workers’ labor and exploit them to create surplus.
- This exploitation is built into the system, and eventually, it leads to conflict.
- As capitalism develops, more workers become aware of their shared interests.
- They organize, and through class struggle, they may overcome the capitalist system. Transcript: Harvey Kaye And what they’re doing is they are employing workers for their labor. And for capitalists to survive in now, we’ll say, in that market economy, they have to make sure that they make a profit. They have whatever the value that is produced by workers, okay, the capitalist expropriates or appropriates that from the workers. Better yet, workers do not decide what happens to what they produce. The capitalists do. And in the course of capitalists selling the product of workers’ labor, okay, is where capitalism is a process of exploitation. Now, it’s also the case that there always has to be surplus, even if you’re lived in socialism. You’ve got to produce more than you consume. That’s a fundamental. Otherwise, you can’t have babies or you can’t take care of people who themselves can’t work. But this is the point. As capitalism develops, the numbers of workers expand. Peasants are displaced from the countryside. They come into the cities. They’re employed not simply in workshops, but in factories. The dialectic is this. When workers enter into factories, it doesn’t take long for the, it’s automatically a situation in which of exploitation, that exploitation inevitably gives rise to conflict. And in fact, so the dialectic is that capitalism, as it emerges, brings into being its, as Marx said, its own grave diggers, the workers, whose development
Time 1:01:04
Capitalism’s Dialectic
- Capitalism inherently creates its own opposition through exploitation of workers.
- As capitalism grows, so does the working class, leading to increased organization and conflict.
- This struggle, according to Marx, could eventually lead workers to overthrow capitalism in favor of socialism, where the economy is democratically controlled by working people.
- This process of inherent conflict and change is the dialectic of capitalism. Transcript: Harvey Kaye The dialectic is this. When workers enter into factories, it doesn’t take long for the, it’s automatically a situation in which of exploitation, that exploitation inevitably gives rise to conflict. And in fact, so the dialectic is that capitalism, as it emerges, brings into being its, as Marx said, its own grave diggers, the workers, whose development in the course of the class Struggle may well involve organizing. And eventually, his argument is that workers across the country will organize, come to see their shared interests, and understand that for them to be able to truly thrive, to not just Feel, but not to experience exploitation, they’ve got to overthrow capitalism or undo it by some process in favor of socialism. And I just want to make this one statement, and we can always talk about it another time people say well what really is socialism well you can define it dictionary like way it’s you know Collective ownership of the means of production or the state ownership or public ownership but ultimately it’s when the struggle for democracy is so effective that the economy itself Is subject to democratic control by working people. Okay. So I don’t know
Time 1:03:46
Marxism and Materialism
- Materialism in Marxist theory isn’t limited to the economy.
- It emphasizes social relations of production, encompassing law.
- Law is essential for capitalism because it governs enterprise operations and labor relations.
- Marx’s materialism builds upon and transforms Hegel’s idealism.
- The concept emphasizes social factors, including legal frameworks, rather than solely economic or technological determinism. Transcript: Harvey Kaye Important. People often say, well, isn’t Marx just, isn’t he just pushing technological or economic determinism? Absolutely not. It’s social relations of production at the heart of the materialist question, which necessarily includes law, because law is, without, by the way, without law, capitalism couldn’t Exist.
Time 1:04:17
Marxist Dialectic Materialism vs Hegelian Idealism
- The Hegelian dialectic is based on the conflict of ideas (thesis vs antithesis leading to synthesis).
- Marx adapted this to a materialist framework, focusing on class struggle, not just ideas, as the driving force of history (class vs class).
- The conflict isn’t external but arises within the system itself. For example, within capitalism, the inherent contradictions and exploitation lead to class consciousness among workers.
- This class consciousness and resulting struggle can lead to various outcomes, from improved working conditions to systemic change. Transcript: Frank Capello Question. Let’s say, let’s take the French Revolution as an example. Harvey Kaye The thesis is that landlord-peasant relations are inevitable. The world in which peasants lived and landlords ruled them and exploited them was inevitable. That’s a landlord peasant order. The thesis is feudalism. Okay. Okay. But the peasants, peasants know they’re being exploited. They’re not stupid. People know, by the way, people know when they’re being exploited. Oh yeah. I mean the assumption, which by the way is why I don’t buy the Leninist arguments quite often. Okay. People know the question is, what are we going to do about it? Right? Lenin says, well, you need the party to enable that and you need the vanguard of the party. But Marx said, workers themselves will come to understand what’s happening and they will come to see, by the way, one of the ways in which workers come to see the possibilities is they See each other and the solidarity that emerges. And that very idea of solidarity in the workplace could well be the basis of socialism and must be the basis for socialism and communism. So the thesis is that this mode of production is inevitable. The antithesis is that capitalists and workers literally are in conflict. The conflict, in essence, you’ve got capitalism being confronted now by class conscious workers who are perhaps socialist inclined. The antithesis, the confrontation, the struggle. It may only advance to the extent that workers get better pay, get better hours, or it may well be that they win the right to vote. Sure. Not in the workplace, but literally across the country, if you get my drift. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so. Frank Capello I hear what you’re saying. So thesis is the capitalism, the state is the order as it is. Yeah, capitalism, social relations, the antithesis. Harvey Kaye Within capitalism, yes, grows out of, it doesn’t stand outside of it, it grows out of the very thesis itself. It ends, the contradiction exists, it emerges. Frank Capello The antithesis being, like you said, class conscious workers, intellectuals, the synthesis is class struggle. Yeah. Harvey Kaye Does that work? It’s Hegel’s thing, it’s idea versus idea. For Marx, it’s class versus class. Frank Capello Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I remember when someone explained sort of like the difference to me and like you’re talking about Hegelian
Time 1:04:35
Workers’ Recognition of Exploitation
- People inherently recognize when they are being exploited.
- The challenge lies not in recognizing exploitation, but in deciding on a course of action.
- Marx believed that workers’ solidarity and mutual recognition in the workplace could form the basis of socialism and communism. Transcript: Harvey Kaye Okay. But the peasants, peasants know they’re being exploited. They’re not stupid. People know, by the way, people know when they’re being exploited. Oh yeah. I mean the assumption, which by the way is why I don’t buy the Leninist arguments quite often. Okay. People know the question is, what are we going to do about it? Right? Lenin says, well, you need the party to enable that and you need the vanguard of the party. But Marx said, workers themselves will come to understand what’s happening and they will come to see, by the way, one of the ways in which workers come to see the possibilities is they See each other and the solidarity that emerges.
Time 1:12:42
Capitalism vs. Human Nature
- Some argue that human nature is inherently greedy and that capitalism is simply a reflection of this.
- They believe that humans naturally fight over resources and are primarily motivated by self-interest.
- This perspective suggests that collective action and concern for others are unnatural. Transcript: Frank Capello Human nature is just to be greedy. Humans have fought with each other over resources, have warred with each other over resources. And, you know, pretty much everything we do, either collectively as a society or individually, is motivated by greed, by self-interest, because we’re all individuals. And like, what are we supposed to do? Think about other people? So what do you say that capitalism is the political and economic representation, or I guess analog of human nature, which is to be greedy?
Time 1:13:25
Debunking the “Greedy Human Nature” Argument
- Instead of arguing about ideological control when someone claims humans are inherently greedy, ask them about their relationships with friends, partners, or in social groups.
- Ask if they engage with others purely for exploitation.
- This makes them realize that human interactions are not solely driven by greed and that human nature is multifaceted and includes things like community and altruism. Transcript: Harvey Kaye And it really is hard to debunk. It’s a good point, yeah. So in some ways, rather than come back with the argument, you’ve been subject to ideological control and all that, you say to them, so wait a minute, you have friends? You have friends? Yeah, I have friends. And they say, well, yeah, exactly, you have friends. Well, do you literally become friends with someone to take advantage of them okay no i oh you say you know you have a boyfriend or a girlfriend okay do you is that relationship strictly So you can take advantage of them exploit them i mean ask them and and unless they’re real shitheads they’re not gonna say oh yeah oh no i don’t do that right say, well, what you’re doing Is you’re admitting that human nature doesn’t reduce simply to that.
Time 1:20:06
Cooperation is Essential for Progress
- Human nature isn’t solely defined by greed.
- Cooperation and solidarity are also fundamental aspects of human behavior.
- Even within capitalism, progress relies on cooperation in various forms, such as labor unions or community organizations. Transcript: Harvey Kaye But the resistance beyond the individual often requires some kind of solidarities, trust in other people. So I guess human nature isn’t just all greedy, or we’d all be out to screw each other. And I don’t mean in the sexual fashion. I mean, you know. Frank Capello Yeah, I sort of answered similarly. I say something along the lines of like, no one has nailed down exactly all of the aspects of human nature and what it entails. In fact, there are many conflicting schools of thought as to what, you know, pure, quote unquote, human nature is. And obviously greed and tribalism is an aspect of it, but so is community and solidarity and collectivism is another aspect of it. And so when it comes to capitalism, I say that capitalism incentivizes and creates imperatives for the worst aspects of human nature, which are like we’re saying greed, constant competition For competition’s sake, you know, wanting get one over on your competitor or your neighbor, all of that stuff.