Jonathan S

A brief and underdeveloped critique

Revisado: 07-21-22

Most of this short book is plain summary of Marx’s and Engels’ work, but not the clearest summary I’ve ever read. In the end Sowell comes around to his critique. Though at times his critique is on point, he distracts the reader with weak and underdeveloped arguments that detract from his more substantive points. For example, Sowell tries to draw a connection between Marx’s “dictatorial” personality and later dictatorships that claimed to be in the Marxist tradition. I find that connection to be tenuous since Sowell himself argues that one must look to the main body of an author’s work (not the author’s side comments) if one wishes to unlock the real meaning of that author’s philosophy, and Marx’s writings on the whole do not advocate dictatorship. Sowell also argues weakly that it can’t be true that workers in America are alienated at work, because so many people flee to America from totalitarian countries. So because people flee worse situations, that proves that Marx was wrong about capitalist alienation? That’s weak (in other words: how bad could skin cancer really be if you would choose it instead of AIDS).

I was especially disappointed in Sowell’s mini biography of Marx, where he went out of his way to denigrate Marx’s personal character. I’m not here to defend Marx the man, but this book claims to be about philosophy and economics, about Marx the “ism” not Marx the dude. It’s as if Sowell didn’t have enough ammo to take down the “ism” so he resorted to painting Marx the man in a negative light, as if that alone could weaken Marx’s philosophy.

In the end, Sowell wants us to equate Leninism with Marxism, to blame Marx for all the 20th century bloodshed and horror perpetrated by those who murdered people in Marx’s name. This is another weak argument that ignores all the other strains of Marxism that exist, not to mention the fact that most of Marx’s Marxism consists of critique of capitalism (still valid and true in our modern time), not prophesy of what future communist societies must look like. Blaming Marx for Lenin is a one sided approach that requires lame scholarship, and sinks to the level of propaganda in my opinion.

I wonder if Sowell would blame Thomas Jefferson for every 19th century slave owner who whipped and murdered his slaves. Or should we blame Martin Luther for every witch who was burned 200 years after his death? This is fun game to play, but it’s not serious scholarship. Maybe that’s how you get a lifetime appointment at the Hoover Institute.

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Beautiful narration

Revisado: 06-11-22

The reader does an exquisite job rendering the very difficult language contained in this book. I found his voice soothing at times, and at other times forceful and sarcastic, the way Marx might have read it. As for the book itself, this is a truly impressive, dare I say awe-inspiring work. This is the critique of capitalism and political economy that Marx spent 20 years writing, and his research and philosophy run very deep. He seemed to see further and understand more than anyone else in his field, and his ideas are perfectly applicable today. The book also drips with snark, which makes it even more fun to read. Highly recommend!

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