M. Harrold
The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
Karl Marx
"see attached note"
"I first read this essay in 1995 while enrolled in an adult-education course. By that point in my life (32 years-old, unemployed) I had already had my fair share of misery-inducing jobs. But I hadn't much understanding of what made the jobs (and me) so miserable.
"So, after spending a long period of time reading widely (but without pointed direction) at the public library, I enrolled in grad school and make the study of misery (mine and others'), along with the prescriptions for its cure (from thinkers like Plato, Nietzsche, Freud and Proust) the object of my study.
"Now in my mid-40s, and gainfully employed, I still reread this essay every couple of years to see if my enthusiasm for it has diminished. And in some respects it has, because 'the Early Marx' occasionally comes off sounding like a hectoring know-it-all.
"But in more important respects I continue to like this essay primarily because I still think that there's a lot of truth to what he says. And so rereading it offers me a kind of consolation because it makes me think that things can be different, better."
"I first read this essay in 1995 while enrolled in an adult-education course. By that point in my life (32 years-old, unemployed) I had already had my fair share of misery-inducing jobs. But I hadn't much understanding of what made the jobs (and me) so miserable.
"So, after spending a long period of time reading widely (but without pointed direction) at the public library, I enrolled in grad school and make the study of misery (mine and others'), along with the prescriptions for its cure (from thinkers like Plato, Nietzsche, Freud and Proust) the object of my study.
"Now in my mid-40s, and gainfully employed, I still reread this essay every couple of years to see if my enthusiasm for it has diminished. And in some respects it has, because 'the Early Marx' occasionally comes off sounding like a hectoring know-it-all.
"But in more important respects I continue to like this essay primarily because I still think that there's a lot of truth to what he says. And so rereading it offers me a kind of consolation because it makes me think that things can be different, better."
