Miscellaneous Post #2

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Marx and "most harmful books"

RadPsyNet: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RadPsyNet-Members/>	October 11, 2005

Hi Jasenn, I must admit, Marx is not my favorite writers. It's not that I don't think what he wrote was important--I do. But I'm not an economics or political kind of a guy, and my mind tends to wander when I read him. Right or wrong, I've always been just as interested in what was responsible for Marx coming up with his conclusions as in his conclusions themselves. Bringing the discussion to the present, Jasenn, you think we humans would be better off if we were to incorporate some of Marx's ideas into our societies. But other people have almost the opposite opinion of him. The conservative magazine Human Events asked a panel of 15 "scholars and public policy leaders" to select the 10 most harmful books of the last two centuries <http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=7591>, and Marx was the only person to be included twice (The Communist Manifesto (#1) and Das Kapital (#6)). What's interesting about this list is not its mind-bogglingness, but its range. The Origin of Species is included, as might be expected, along with The Second Sex and Silent Spring. I've never read Mein Kampf (#2), so I can't say anything about it. But is The Origin of Species the 18th most harmful book of the last two hundred years? Is Silent Spring the 22nd most harmful? I think a connection exists between many of these books, their ideas, and their understandings of life together. Mein Kampf is excluded, of course, but to varying degrees I think the authors of many of the other books sensed that humankind has been battling with itself for thousands of years over the question of Should we become who we truly are or shouldn't we? And these other authors felt that we should. As I read him, Marx was attempting to answer this question, but he focused mainly on one part of what is actually a much bigger problem. Ideas and understandings of life are of course important. But even more important is the reason people choose one side or another in this on-going battle, since that decision is responsible for everything from the war in Iraq to the Intelligent Design debate to our knowing as little about Joan's "real you" as psychiatrists knew 50 years ago. Like it or not, this battle is fought in each of our heads, and the decisions we make define in large part our human existence. I do have one question, Jasenn. What do you think the general public's opinion of the psych community as a whole is now, compared to what the public's opinion has been in the past? Kind regards, Scott K. Smith

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