I’m getting ready to read “Capital and other Writings,” by Karl Marx, for the first time. The book was ordered, and I’ll get it in a few days. This is an entirely new direction for me, in terms of literary study. When it comes to politics, the last book I read with a heavy focus on social change was Rush Limbaugh’s “I Told You So,” which was released in 1996, when I was a devout Christian conservative Republican.
This is a swing in a different direction because I’ve never read Marx. I’m a firm believer in the notion that one does not have to agree with the ideas the author lays down, as long as one is also willing to give space for that author’s words to be considered. I am liberal, by U.S. standards, and cannot deny that laborers the world over are often exploited at the hands of those who seek to accrue wealth and power (some believe those two terms to be synonymous), but I’ve never considered myself a communist.
Believe it or not, I’m actually looking forward to reading this book. That said, I was a little nervous when I actually made the purchase, because the United States is in the midst of a dramatic shift, and I know that people who order Qu’rans, books on anarchy, and even Marxist literature, is probably put on a watch list at some point. I should never have to feel that way about simply reading a book, but the climate in the U.S. is not very friendly towards such things at this point.
Still, the desire to read the book won out, and knowing I will not find it in a bookstore within the 5 miles I can travel, hell we don’t even have a bookstore within the nearest 5 miles, so to the internet I go, my only real key to salvation in this place.
I’ll probably write up a critique of the book after I read it, or maybe not. It depends upon how much energy I have, and whether the content of the book itself, which also includes his other works, such as the Communist Manifesto, is enough to drive me to write. It takes more and more to get that motivation these days, but here’s hoping. It’s been so long since I’ve truly been interested in something to where I had to read it as soon as possible.
I hope this little side journey ends up being a fruitful venture for myself.