Engels on the Election

"The tenacity of the Yankees, who are even rehashing the Greenback humbug, is a result of their theoretical backwardness and their Anglo-Saxon contempt for all theory. They are punished for this by a superstitious belief in every philosophical and economic absurdity, by religious sectarianism, and by idiotic economic experiments, out of which, however, certain bourgeois cliques profit." F. Engels to Sorge, 1892

(thanks to Armagan Gezici for posting this gem)

(the full letter by Engels can be found here)

Rand Paul, Inchoate Marxist

Rand Paul, on Election Night, Nov 2, 2010:

We all either work for rich people or sell stuff to rich people. So just punishing rich people is as bad for the economy as punishing anyone.

cf. Karl Marx, from "Wage-Labor and Capital":

The labour power of the wage-worker can only be exchanged for capital by increasing capital, by strengthening the power whose slave it is. Hence, increase of capital is increase of the proletariat, that is, of the working class.

The interests of the capitalist and those of the worker are, therefore, one and the same, assert the bourgeois and their economists. Indeed! The worker perishes if capital does not employ him.....

As long as the wage-worker is a wage-worker his lot depends upon capital. That is the much-vaunted community of interests between worker and capitalist.

(Has the point not been made? Still? How bad is the hostage mentality in America today? "Treat our masters well, lest we be treated worse!" And the thought still cannot be formed -- abolish that relationship?!? The thought still cannot even be conceived of, let alone expressed?!?

Let's make it clearer still: "As long as the wage-worker is a wage-worker his lot depends upon capital." The self-evident conclusion: abolish the institution of wage-labor. There can be no true democracy so long as the many remain dependent upon the few. For what is democracy if not the equal distribution of authority?)