From: Jerry Levy (Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM)
Date: Wed Oct 26 2005 - 00:00:49 EDT
> Marx was clearly referring to vampire bats, who live off other > animals by sucking their blood: the analogy was intended to imply > that capitalists were parasites. Hi Ian: While I agree that the analogy was intended to suggest that capitalists are parasites [NB: one could claim that in _any_ class society, the ruling class is parasitic], I do not agree with your suggested interpretation -- especially the assertion that Marx was "clearly" referring to vampire bats. Against that interpretation, I offer the following: 1. Even during Marx's time and culture, the meaning of "vampires" and "vampire bats" had two quite different meanings. 2. As far as I can determine, Marx never referred to vampire bats. 3. Let us recall that Marx used the vampire analogy _repeatedly_ throughout his life. A listing of the works where he referred to vampires includes: -- Justification of the Correspondent from the Mosel (1843) -- The German Ideology (1845) -- The Holy Family (1845) -- Neue Rheinsiche Zeitung, No. 297 (May, 1849) -- Class Struggles in France (1850) -- 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon (1852) -- Letter to Engels (6/22/1867) -- The Civil War in France (1871) If you read these other instances in which he referred to vampires, I think it's pretty clear that he was referring to vampires, not vampire bats. 4. The analogy that he was making regarding capitalists and workers was of a member of one _species_ preying upon members of the _same species_. Even though vampires are undead, they were once living human beings, not an altogether different species. In this sense, the vampire bat analogy would not work as well for what Marx was trying to convey. 5. The analogy to vampires has a lot more literary flair and meaning within the culture of Marx's time than the more mundane analogy to vampire bats. Would you care to re-consider? In solidarity, Jerry
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