chandlerkaiden

Hi Richard, can you speak to how, when, and why the American right co-opted Christianity, which—in both its canonical gospels and apocrypha—is specifically antagonistic to their economic values, and whose sacred texts and ancient prophets espouse values opposed to those that capitalism would later embrace? Capitalism loves contradictions, and this one is egregious and absurd.

Have you ever considered doing a lecture series for The Great Courses by The Teaching Company? 24 lectures on Marxism from you would be incredible, with that institution’s standards and production value.

Thanks so much, Richard--I do see anti-state implications from even its earliest proponents, though they're subtler than the overt social message... the Christians were at odds with the Roman empire from the very first minute, and even when they managed to gain the upper hand under Emperor Constantine and resurged after Julian the Apostate, they still placed "the city of God" above the state, and were occasionally scapegoated for Roman political failures. Very interesting. Loved the essay, "Understanding Marxism"--I think I see the tradition you're following with that, and I hope it widens the crater in our general acceptance of our economic system.

Excellent--I'm thrilled you're in touch with them, even if they didn't pull the trigger... there's still hope. They recently put out a strictly historical "Capitalism and Socialism" course, which was a bit different than their past courses in history and economics, but Marx is effectively absent from their thousands of lectures. A real blind spot, that--but I'm dying to see them produce something like your older YouTube lectures on the fundamentals of Marxism. Also, that essay was great--reminded me of the Communist Manifesto insofar as it was short, to the point, and accessible to really wide audiences--and, for the right person, it's a radical delivery in an economic package.

Hell YES.