Para kazanmak önemsiz mi?

"London 13 August 1866

My dear Lafargue,

Allow me to make the following observations:

1.If you wish to continue your relations with my daughter, you will have to discard your manner of “paying court” to her. You are well aware that no engagement has been entered into, that as yet everything is provisional. And even if she were formally your betrothed, you should not forget that this concerns a long-term affair. An all too intimate deportment is the more unbecoming in so far as the two lovers will be living in the same place for a necessarily prolonged period of purgatory and of severe tests. I have observed with dismay your change of conduct from day to day over the geologic epoch of a single week. To my mind, true love expresses itself in the lover’s restraint, modest bearing, even diffidence regarding the adored one, and certainly not in unconstrained passion and manifestations of premature familiarity. Should you plead in defence your Creole temperament, it becomes my duty to interpose my sound sense between your temperament and my daughter. If in her presence you are unable to love her in a manner that conforms with the latitude of London, you will have to resign yourself to loving her from a distance. I am sure you take my meaning.

2.Before definitely settling your relations with Laura I require a clear explanation of your economic position. My daughter believes that I am conversant with your affairs. She is mistaken. I have not raised this matter because, in my view, it was for you to take the initiative. You know that I have sacrificed my whole fortune to the revolutionary struggle. I do not regret it. On the contrary. Had my career to start again, I should do the same. But I would not marry. As far as lies in my power, I intend to save my daughter from the reefs on which her mother’s life has been wrecked. Since this matter would never have reached its present stage without my direct intervention (a failing on my part!) and without the influence of my friendship for you on my daughter’s attitude, a heavy personal responsibility rests upon me. As regards your present circumstances, the information, which I did not seek out but which has reached me nevertheless, is by no means reassuring. But to proceed. Concerning your position in general, I know that you are still a student, that your career in France has been more or less ruined by the Liège incident, that you still lack the language, the indispensable implement for your acclimatisation in England, and that your prospects are at best entirely problematic. Observation has convinced me that you are not by nature diligent, despite bouts of feverish activity and good intentions. In these circumstances you will need help from others to set out in life with my daughter. As regards your family I know nothing. Assuming that they enjoy a certain competence, that does not necessarily give proof that they are willing to make sacrifices for you. I do not even know how they view your plans for marriage. I repeat, I must have definite elucidation on all these matters. Moreover, you, as an avowed realist, will hardly expect that I should treat my daughter’s future as an idealist.
You, a man so practical that you would abolish poetry altogether, cannot wish to wax poetical at the expense of my child.
3. To forestall any misinterpretation of this letter, I can assure you that were you in a position to contract marriage as from today, it would not happen. My daughter would refuse. I myself should object. You must be a real man before thinking of marriage, and it will mean a long testing time for you and for her.

4. I should like the privacy of this letter to remain between our two selves. I await your answer.

Yours ever,
Karl Marx
"

Birkaç sene öncesine giderek yaptığım yorumlar alışkanlık yaptı, biraz daha eskilere gidelim dedim. Bu arada Marx Baba'dan özür. Dördüncü maddeye aykırı davrandığım için. Bağımsız ama göbekten bağımlı sosyal bilimcilerimiz iletiversinler.

4 Yorum Var.:

Tansel dedi ki...

Bir dakika Barış bey herhalde ben anlatamıyorum. Para kazanmak önemsiz demedim ben. İktisatçının işi salt mali araçlarla değildir. Ekonomiyi genel bağlamda değerlendirmek önemlidir. Yani akademisyen tabir ettiğimiz iktisatçılar cep doldurma heveslisi olmamalıdırlar zaten. Ekonomiyi kendilerine özgü araçlarla test edip genelin refahına yönelik çözümler üretmek durumundadırlar. Bireysel çözümler değil. Bağımsız Sosyal Bilimcilerle ne alakası var anlayamadım. Yazınıza da fevkalade şaşırdım doğrusu.

Bu arada Marx'a iletme konusuna gelince; o kadar uzağa gitmenize gerek yok, ben de iletirim neo-liberal fetişlerden bağımsız bir sosyal bilimci olarak.

Saygılar.
Tansel Güçlü

tersaci dedi ki...

Tansel Bey,
Yazı benim değil ki. Hangi kısmına şaşırdınız anlayamadım.

Selamlar
Baris

Tansel dedi ki...

Barış bey,

Arif olan anlar.

Saygılar.
Tansel Güçlü

chelseay dedi ki...

Marx'ı seviyorum, ama Engels'ten hafif işkillendim desem...

Bıyıklarından esinlendiğim bir posta atmıştım geçenlerde: Engels'in bıyıkları

O postaya gelen yorumculardan biri beni buraya yönlendirdi. (Belki işime yarayabilirmiş.)

Marx'ın mektubunda bana en ilginç gelen ifade:

Moreover, you, as an avowed realist, will hardly expect that I should treat my daughter’s future as an idealist.

Marx kendi hayatını devrimci müdaheleye feda etmeye hazır. İşçilerin hayatını feda etmeye hepten hazır (onların zincirlerinden başka kaybedecekleri bir şey yok.)

Ama, Marx'ın kızının zincirlerinden başka kaybedecek bir şeyleri mi var?

Engels'te babalar gibi fabrika vardı mesela.