From: cyrilsmith-at-cix.compulink.co.uk (Mr C Smith)

Subject: Postmodern philosophy and credit

Dear Andy,

On your somewhat over-excited remarks about the law of value. I have been trying to read Capital as the antidote to economics, not as a kind of economics. The importance of value is then seen to be its qualitative character, not just a relationship of quantities. (Re-Read Section 3 of Chapter 1, 'The Forms of Value', and then Section 4, 'The Fetish-character of Commodities'.) I tried to expand on this a bit in International Socialist Forum 2, 'Wealth and Value'.

Yes, the breakdown of the Law of Value is certainly prominent in this 'postmodern' age. But this also takes the shape of economic crisis, unemployment, inflation, etc. These damn postmodernists just take it as if it had no meaning beyond the surface. (They don't really believe in meaning at all, do they?) I don't mind them not understanding the world. I object strongly to people telling everybody else to stop trying to understand it!!

Cyril