Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a great thinker, after-all, with just the power of his mind, perception and observational skills, he saw straight through the bourgeois construct that is ‘capitalism’ and the bourgeois establishment has still not recovered from this intricate and intimate exposure. Indeed, the bourgeoisie has spent immeasurable resources over the last two-hundred years or more – attempting to suppress, misrepresent and misappropriate the works of Karl Marx so as to prevent the working-classes from a) studying it, b) applying it and c) seizing power for itself! For the bourgeois mind and body, this evolutionary process (it is that natural) must be stopped through the use of every element of the human mind and body which manufactures ‘inverted’ versions of reality, and this is why ‘religion’ (in both its ‘theistic’ and ‘secular’ senses) plays the most important of parts! If Marx is to be understood, his work must be studied (and its message and process fully absorbed) and I would suggest that following three books in this order:
1) The German Ideology (1948)
2) Grundrisse (1858)
3) Das Kapital (1869)
This list is chronological, logical and premised upon a natural evolution (and clarification) of the development of the analytical thought of Karl Marx. The term ‘Grundrisse’ is German and can be translated as ‘Foundation’, ‘Floor Plan’, ‘Groundwork’ or perhaps even ‘Direction of Thought’, etc. ‘Das Kapital’ translates as ‘The Capital’ but would probably be better translated as ‘Regarding the Mechanism and Functioning of Capitalism’ (as all this is communicated in the short original German phrase). This probably explains why many modern Publishers limit the translation to just ‘Capital’ – but this compromise misses something of the power and authority implied in the original title supplied by Marx. Incidentally, ‘The German Ideology’ was originally rendered by Marx and Engels as ‘Die Deutsche Ideologie’ – a more or less exact and corresponding match. As human evolution should be entirely about the process of the development of physical labour directed by the free thought of a mind enabled to move in any direction – of course – the reader is free to choose where and how to access Marx. I offer the above in the light of the ‘genuine’ and ‘fake’ Left’s inability to offer any guidance on this matter.
Nothing Shoshana Zuboff thinks or writes is original. If the reader is familiar with the work of Karl Marx (and Friedrich Engels for that matter) – it is obvious that she is being allowed to use her elitest position of tenure at Harvard University to misappropriate the thinking of Karl Marx and present his original thinking as being the product of her own bourgeois privilege and status. This is because Shoshana Zuboff has been appointed the task of playing the part of a ‘rebel’ Professor who ‘dares’ to criticise the capitalist system she very much supports, is an integral part of and which has served her (as a privileged individual) very well! There is NOTHING she is saying in her book(s) on the phenomenon of so-called ‘Surveillance Capitalism’ that Karl Marx has not already said during the 1800s. The thought of Marx is a continuously unfolding process which must be applied anew to every set of developing circumstance within a socio-economic structure. In short, capitalism generates the conditions it adjusts to – end of story. We as ordinary workers (Proletariat) must interpret capitalism from one generation to the next, on our own (using Marx) whilst not being reliant upon the privileged bourgeoisie to tell us what to think or how to act! This explains why this book is a favourite of Barack Obama – America’s so-called first ‘Black’ President – a man who funded, armed the illegal overhrow of the (democratically elected) Ukrainian government in early 2014 – and supoorted (in its place) the ‘Neo-Nazi’ Euro-Maidan Junta! This Neo-Nazi Junta murdered 10-15 thousand Ukrainian and Russian people living in Donbass between 2014-2022 (according to UN figures) – using recruits from the worldwide ‘White Supremacy’ Movement with arms provided by the US, UK and EU! Obama’s Administration also voted against numerous UN attempts to criminalise the glorification of Neo-Nazism! Zuboff and Obama are hardly the role models the working-class should be listening to or following!
Shoshana Zuboff is certainly not Karl Marx, but the permitted (and ‘scripted’) plagiarism she commits is very much part of the bourgeois misrepresentation of Marxist thought. Shoshana Zuboff represents the talented ‘individual’ that has been produced by the bourgeois system – and who has provided a staggeringly original insight to the nature of predatory capitalism! Shoshana Zuboff is none of these things – at least in the sense of the Marxist thinking she has appropriated for her own nefarious needs. This explains why no one on the Left (not even the ‘fake’ Left) has provided a review for her book. All the reviewers are staunch supporters of the capitalist system and are busy using Shoshana Zuboff to support their false idea that there was once a ‘mystical’ and ‘perfected’ epoch (reflective of the Judeo-Christian heaven) for the brutality that is capitalism – and of course – Shoshana Zuboff plays quietly along just as she fulfils her part in this great lie (capitalism for the many – and not the few – as one pompous reviewer opined)! If you want to understand the fakery that Shoshana Zuboff represents – study the work of Karl Marx properly!
THE SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 