From: Riccardo Bellofiore (riccardo.bellofiore@UNIBG.IT)
Date: Wed Oct 05 2005 - 06:40:23 EDT
the problem are not capitalists, but value, money, and capital. the issue here is a ghost turning into a vampire, passing through possession or incarnation, and needing a fluid of some other living entity made internal. you think this is trans-historical? me not. but, as we say in Italy, amici come prima (friends as before). and definitely I do not want to push the thing too far. riccardo At 11:21 +0100 5-10-2005, Michael Williams wrote: >"Perhaps we should have saved this topic for discussion near the >end of the month .... > >In solidarity, Jerry >" >Or perhaps until very early April? > >michael > > >From: OPE-L [mailto:OPE-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU] On Behalf Of Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM >Sent: 05 October 2005 00:45 >To: OPE-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU >Subject: Re: [OPE-L] vampire blues > > > in Capital as a vampire? definitely, yes > >Riccardo, > >Capitalists as blood-suckers is a variation on the trans-historical >image of the ruling class as parasites. > >Let us consider the vampire analogy -- and all it implies -- more >closely. > >The analogy to bloodsucking is colorful but misleading. It is >not workers' blood that capitalists survive on, it is by >capitalizing on what they produce. The commodity is not >the blood of workers even if it was produced with workers' >blood, sweat, and tears. > >There is no distinction that capitalists make between virgin workers >and experienced ones. If anything, experiences ones -- to the degree >that they have more skill -- are more highly prized. Virginity >has special meaning in Victorian society when the Dracula myth >was popularized; capitalists are willing to exploit both virgins and >non-virgins equally. > >Sunlight is poisonous for vampires. Not so for capital. All >hours of the day are utilized where possible to accumulate >capital (and, contrary to the image in Volume 1) consume >unproductively surplus value. Also, the extraction of surplus >value (unlike the extraction of blood by vampires) takes place >during all hours of the working day rather than only during the >night. > >Vampires are neither living nor dead -- they are undead. This might >seem to fit in rather well with the imagery of capitalists as capital >personified. It certainly fits in well with the predatory nature of >capitalists as a class. > >Yet, if capitalists are vampires what does that make workers? >Once bitten by a vampire one joins the undead and is condemned >*forever* to slavishly follow the commands of one's master. >There is *absolutely* no room for subjectivity or revolt on the part of >the bitten. Thus, the only prospect for defeating the vampire must >come from an *external* source -- i.e. somebody who has never been >bitten. This perhaps represents a fantasy of capital but by no >means a reality. A good thing too since the working class could >never be the "gravediggers" of capital and "expropriate the >expropriators" if that were true. > >Thus, if one believes that this is the message of _Capital_ then >all hope is lost and all struggle by workers is impossible since >the bitten can not struggle against their vampire master: their >blood has been poisoned and they have no will. If this is the >message then it is not a revolutionary one. > >It is therefore a nice analogy but one that is highly misleading >if we take it too literally. > > > > my point is that the commodity compels Marx to speak the > > language of ghosts and vampires. > > >He spoke the language of ghosts throughout his literary career. For >fun I did a search at in the Marx archive at ><http://www.marxists.org>www.marxists.org (click >on Marx's head) by typing in "ghost." For an atheist, there >were an enormous quantity of references to ghosts -- and on >*many* more topics than just the commodity. > >A "specter" is haunting Europe! It is not the specter of capital, is it? >Rather, the specter is communism -- an image that is quite contrary >to the imagery of workers as lacking in subjectivity and only capable >of following the commands of their vampire master. > >Perhaps we should have saved this topic for discussion near the >end of the month .... > >In solidarity, Jerry > > >-- >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. >Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.11.10/119 - Release Date: 04/10/2005 > > >-- >No virus found in this outgoing message. >Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. >Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.11.10/119 - Release Date: 04/10/2005 -- Riccardo Bellofiore Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Hyman P. Minsky" Università di Bergamo Via dei Caniana 2 I-24127 Bergamo, Italy e-mail: riccardo.bellofiore@unibg.it direct +39-035-2052545 secretary +39-035 2052501 fax: +39 035 2052549 homepage: http://www.unibg.it/pers/?riccardo.bellofiore
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