There's no point in getting mad at two things:- Historical figures.
- Languages.
That being said, everyone knows that J-J Rousseau was a complete dick. I've always struggled with just treating him as a seminal figure in intellectual history, not as a seminal dickhead in intellectual history. Everyone is familiar with the "if I had a time machine I'd go back and kill Hitler when he was a weird Austrian baby" scenario, which I'm all for, but I'd also go back and just bitch-slap the living shit out of Rousseau.
But then there's Marx. I've got a better handle on Marxism than I ever have before and I'm working on putting together a coherent "stance" on political economy, thanks largely to the Histcon class I'm in, but as for Marx himself, I dunno. I love the beard. That's a given. But I can't figure out if he was as insufferable as Rousseau or might have actually been fun to have fun with. You know:
- Going on a paddle-boat...with Marx.
- Playing badminton...with Marx.
- Going to a Chinese buffet...with Marx.
- Going to the beach and looking for loose change with metal detectors...with Marx.
4 comments:
Fun to have fun. Holla!
Also the best way to educate is TOTALLY to leave toddler Pierre alone with a library of books and, I dunno, one object blunt, one sharp and come back in ten years.
Leaves you free to play lots of badminton, abandon your family, etc.
I thought you figured out by now a vast majority of intellectuals and academics are the very antithesis of fun, with most lacking the ability to socialize at all.
Yeah, but see, Marx cracks wise sometimes! Out of the 3000-something pages of Capital, I've caught him being funny at least twice!
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