Wednesday, 29.10.97
HUMAN BEING XVI
(Labour
contd.)
My dearest Khalid,
Since a week, we could not check our mail, nor could we send out any mail; either we had no bound server for the domain Merida, or we could not even connect up with the central computer, Zeus. As soon as the Gods have restored the status quo, we can carry on again with our usual communication.
Meanwhile we will continue with our classes.
The Marxian Concept of Labour
In a very simple and understandable way, let us see what Marx and Engels in particular, and Marxists in general, understand by the concept "Labour".
According to the Marxian fathers, Labour or Work "is a process between Man and Nature"; of course, they use the term "Mensch", which could mean Man, Mankind or the Human Being. Also, they explain that in this labour process, Man relates, arranges or controls his material interchange (Stoffwechsel) with Nature, by means of his conscious activity, which has a human aim. You can imagine for yourself what exactly this objective is!
Division of Labour: Antagonistic Social Classes
Labour is performed as manual and spiritual work. Originally the two were united dialectically, but with the emergence of Private Property of the Means of Production, the two were divided, later giving origin to social classes and the class struggle.
Pre-Marxian Conceptions of Labour
Long before Marx, ruling class philosophers like Bacon, Locke and Diderot have given their definitions of Labour. Rousseau treated the "historic" role of work, and showed its "contradictory" essence. Utopian socialists like Saint-Simon, Owen and Fourier already declared war against Private Property, and they claimed that Common Property is Natural Property; in other words, Nature is the "natural" property of Man, to be commonly exploited. It was exactly the bourgeois economists who had explained, that Labour is the source of all wealth, as I said, of all "evil".
German Conceptions: Herder and Fichte
In classical German philosophy, Herder stated that by means of his labour, Man influences objective reality, Nature, and these natural conditions again determine Man. What Nature, as Cosmos, does, how it acts towards Man, this was irrelevant; only the one-sided reaction of Nature, after it was exploited or dominated by Labour, had any social importance. Fichte went even further; according to him, Labour is the duty of the moral and existential conditions of the physical human personality; hence, work possibilities have to be guaranteed by the State.
Hegel's Conception
Hegel tried to explain the very essence
of Labour. The World Spirit can only realize itself, can only become conscious
of itself, by means of objectivation, by means of Entäusserung,
in other words, by means of activity, of Labour. This is the way how Hegel
explained Labour in an idealist fashion, which Marx later will determine
in a
materialist way as follows: Through Labour, Man produces himself,
his forces of production, his Society, and also his History. What a fine
Patria Man had produced. Enjoy it now!
WE IN THE PATRIA, THE PATRIA IN HISTORY
As we have stated on so many occasions already, the Patria is in History; History exists in the Patria, and History transcends in itself, i.e. History transcends in History. Formulated another way, We are part and parcel of the Patria; We labour in the Patria; We exploit Nature, We are being exploited and dominated by Society. We are products and victims of the Patria. It would really be a sad case, if we were only this. But, we are not only, we do not exist only, we are a n d exist not only in the Patria; we are more, we exist plus, we transcend giga! We are more than Patrians, we transcend as Patrians a n d Historians.
Nothing Special About Us: No "Seventh World Wonder"!
What is meant exactly by this, we have explained over and over again in previous lectures. We are not anything special, we are not elites, we are not the chosen few, we are not part of a Herrenvolk; these are the things which the rulers of the Patria are. We are just simply WE, WE are a n d exist US! Throughout and throughin History, WE find Ourselves, WE emancipate Ourselves! We perceive a n d think AND excel. That is all about it, why We are We!
What We Are Not, How We Do Not Exist
We are trying to use our bodies, our mind, our ratio, to historicize ourselves. We do not want to influence anybody, we do not indoctrinate or manipulate subordinates, we do not recruit soldiers for Christ or for Bosnia, we do not conscientize proletarians, we do not even want to overthrow the State, we do not make revolution, we do not want to realize socialism or communism: all these things we leave to the protagonists and the antagonists of the Fatherland; they have always been busy doing all these things, and they will forever do them, as long as the Patria will be a n d will exist.
All these things, what "human beings" generally do, compound their "historic" role, their patriarchal job, their capitalist work for subsistence, their socialist Labour for survival.
In fact, we state: It is not worthwhile killing ourselves battling against the Patria; it is not worth our efforts; we have much more essential a n d existential AND transcendental things to do, to think, to reason and to excel about.
No Time and Space To Waste
For others, "Time is Money!", we do not have the patriarchal formal logical time and space to waste. Who does not know what we are, that we exist, and how we transcend, of course, will not and cannot annihilate us, as Shakespeare stated: Our ambition is made of much sterner stuff. However, no matter how adamant we are, as Patrians, we are forever in danger, much more than anybody else, every day we die a thousand deaths, we toil in the stench of Death, we sleep in the shadow of Thanatos, just below the Sword of Damocles, but as historians, like Giordano Bruno, our "executioners" fear Us more than they fear Death itself; in this sense, We are Invisible, Invincible. Now truly a Spectre roams across the Patria: the Spectre of History!
Now, my dear Khalid, we know what Labour is all about and how it exists currently in the Patria as Labour a n d Capital.
Next time we will joyfully frolic, swim, splash and dive in the turbulent waters of Labour and Property.
Till then,
Love,
Franz.