Trego's Mountain Ear

I’m looking at an article that pummels  the dems “Kamunist” candidate for president and stresses that Harris’ father was a Marxist economist.  Now communism in the US is as old as the bloody pilgrims at Plymouth colony – and that was over 20 years before Karl Marx. 

The Plymouth Colony was founded on communism – look it up: Occupy Plymouth Colony: How A Failed Commune Led To Thanksgiving.  The Pilgrims spent their first 2 ½ years operating on a charter that called for communal property and labor.  They damned near all starved before the decision to ditch their communist roots and go for private property.  Our nation didn’t start with a bunch of capitalists – Plymouth colony was communist to the core, and it took a couple of years of starvation to change their approach.  Like I said – Look it up. The link is there to click  – look it up.  I’ll wait.

Karl, on the other hand, was a student of Capitalism.  His life work- Das Kapital is three volumes that analyzed Capitalism – the first volume published in 1867, the final volume, after his death, in 1894.  The Communist Manifesto was a pamphlet published in 1848.  We think of Karl and remember the pamphlet while ignoring the quarter-century of work studying Capitalism that resulted in Das Kapital.  We remember Marx for the 6 weeks of effort he put in (as a young man) writing a pamphlet, and ignore the quarter century he spent researching and writing on Capitalism.

Personally, I spent several years studying outmigration in America’s real communist culture – South Dakota’s Dariusleut Hutterites.  Among the discoveries was a feeling that several colonies were so much on the edge that publishing more than the dissertation would have been irresponsible.  The Hutterites are a truly communal people, living in a capitalist society, and without the religious aspect, their communism would not work.  Even with the religious mandate their existence is a bit shaky.  Still, among other pieces of knowledge I acquired was an understanding of communism – fair warning here: the “communism” practiced in China comes a lot closer to meeting the definition of fascism than it does communism.  I don’t consider myself a great student of communism – but 10 years after my retirement, the dissertation continues to get academic citations.

Even with a religious component, the Pilgrims couldn’t make communism work – but their communal legacy continues to show political strength in Massachusetts. 

Donald Harris delved into economics from a “Post-Keynesian” perspective. It does match Marx’ view of Capitalism -the system Marx studied will not, can not, provide equality of income and benefits, without government intervention.   It may be a Post-Keynesian perspective, but it still shows Keynes’ fingerprints.  It’s worth mentioning that Richard Nixon made some very Keynesian decisions back when he was a president.

It’s easy to be Marxist in either economics or sociology.  In sociology, you can be called Marxist if you follow the social conflict paradigm . . . Karl pointed social conflict out at a time when most theorists followed the functionalist paradigm.  In economics, just about any approach that includes government messing with the economy can show some Marxist roots.