Fundamentals of Marx: Contradictions

How did Marx use the term "contradictions"? How did subsequent Marxists build upon this concept and apply it to their own investigations of social systems? There is no concrete answer to these questions but the topic is nevertheless worth considering if we are to adequately engage with the many works in the Marxist school of thought that employ "contradictions" in some capacity.
Script read by C.
Writing, editing, and visuals by M.
Music by Charles Tristan:
/ charles-tristan
Patreon:
/ themarxistproject
Sources (in order of cited passages):
Harvey, D. (2014). Seventeen contradictions and the end of capitalism. Oxford University Press, USA.
Mao, Z. (1987). On contradiction. Chinese Studies in Philosophy, 19(2), 20-82.
Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1992). Capital, volume two: The process of circulation of capital. Penguin Classics, p. 391.

Пікірлер: 107

  • @christopherdaniels2241
    @christopherdaniels22414 жыл бұрын

    I really liked the project, so I translated everything to Portuguese, as it may reach more people. Keep up the good work!

  • @themarxistproject

    @themarxistproject

    4 жыл бұрын

    Thank you so much for doing that!

  • @sethlee1017

    @sethlee1017

    3 жыл бұрын

    Viva la revolution! You’re doing good work comrade!

  • @suprithAnCom

    @suprithAnCom

    Жыл бұрын

    Thanks comrade! We need world socialism ❤️🌎

  • @sandrocosta479

    @sandrocosta479

    11 ай бұрын

    Great work bro! Red salute from Portugal!

  • @randomserb761
    @randomserb7614 жыл бұрын

    The name "Mao Zedong" follows Chinese naming conventions - Mao is the surname, Zedong the personal name. When citing his work and the citation style demands that only the initials be given, it should be Mao, Z.

  • @themarxistproject

    @themarxistproject

    4 жыл бұрын

    Thank you for catching that! That's what I get for being lazy and using auto-generated citations.

  • @Chase-vq6eq

    @Chase-vq6eq

    3 жыл бұрын

    Yikes

  • @breadtheory
    @breadtheory4 жыл бұрын

    Great one! These videos make it so easy to understand Marxist economics.

  • @Pahjx
    @Pahjx4 жыл бұрын

    I like the new narrator.

  • @thepajeg
    @thepajeg4 жыл бұрын

    I see the notification, I click. I’m a simple man.

  • @surafelgeleta6441
    @surafelgeleta64414 жыл бұрын

    Great video. This channel helps me learn a lot about marxism thank you

  • @dialecticalveganegoist1721
    @dialecticalveganegoist17214 жыл бұрын

    Great explanation! Love the new narrator and the visuals

  • @danielvictor3262
    @danielvictor32622 жыл бұрын

    This should be MANDATORY reading for Western Marxists in regards to how they approach others especially when organising the working class. LARPing tankies and some twisted liberal variation of "communist" drunk on idpol would rather antagonize a member of the working class/petit bourgeoisie who had never learned to process their own contradictions in the first place. For example: a blue collar worker can have progressive ideas about labor relations but have regressive ideas when it comes to gender; a petib but vice versa. Most Western self-proclaimed Marxists would rather alienate these people by approaching them through their secondary contradictions (gender, race, etc.) rather than through their principal contradictions, i.e. which class they belong to and how does the other class affect them (aka class analysis). Contradictions on race and gender are secondary because class relations form the basis that touch upon these contradictions in the first place, making it primary. This is not to say that things such as gender and race are not important matters to discuss. Progressive ideas about race and gender should be discussed ALONGSIDE class relations, since upon closer inspection oppressions on class, gender, and race are interconnected and mutually reinforces each other. Remember: Class relations form the basis of oppression of race and gender, but all forms of oppression should be fought altogether. TL;DR If you plan to organise the working class don't kick out a powerline worker from your conference just because they are "fatphobic" or don't accuse a small enterprise owner of being a "dirty capitalist". Class analysis is always important, and learning contradictions helps in determining who to antagonize and which ones should be organised.

  • @rhino4gulf
    @rhino4gulf3 жыл бұрын

    Love the work you guys do!

  • @dogeyes7261
    @dogeyes72614 жыл бұрын

    These are excellent, keep up the great work

  • @DITOGaming
    @DITOGaming4 жыл бұрын

    I like these videos so much that I've used them as an example to members of the fourth international on good ways to grow class consciousness. Not everyone is inclined to read theory and myself and other members of the party I am affiliated with think your videos are excellent.

  • @s0ll0112
    @s0ll01124 жыл бұрын

    I really like your videos, definitely learned a lot. Thank you! I know that you said that you're not going to talk about Marx's value theory but I allowed myself to point out that besides the USE-VALUE and EXCHANGE-VALUE, there exist another form distinguished by Marx, namely VALUE. These three forms are not in a logical opposition but coexist within a commodity. Exchange Value is the necessary mode of representation of VALUE, The difference between VALUE and EXCHANGE-VALUE is in that what is represented(value) and the mode of representation(exchange value) i.e. the social relation between the labouring activities of the people is represented as surface relation between the products of their labour i.e. commodities. I'm not going to dig deeper I just find it important to point out. btw ''Seventeen Contradictions of Capital'' is a must read ! Keep up the great job, Comrade!

  • @brendannyman7788
    @brendannyman77884 жыл бұрын

    Sorry I haven't been watching your videos lately. I lost two of my jobs and I luckily found a new one but I am surprised that this channel has grown as it has. Congrats comrades ! Solidarity from the epicenter state of the covid outbreak

  • @themarxistproject

    @themarxistproject

    4 жыл бұрын

    Sorry to hear about your work situation. Stay strong out there. This will be a difficult time for many of us. With any luck it will also be a time for real opportunities to change the world we live in. Here's to a future where our livelihoods are not dictated by the whims of capital!

  • @andrewfriedman4972

    @andrewfriedman4972

    3 жыл бұрын

    Realist dude if there was socialism you wouldn’t even have a job. You would be going hungry and so would everybody else be.

  • @andrewfriedman4972

    @andrewfriedman4972

    3 жыл бұрын

    Kevin Tewey socialism is a theory that the means of productions, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the entire community

  • @andrewfriedman4972

    @andrewfriedman4972

    3 жыл бұрын

    Kevin Tewey the US has already implanted to much socialism and restrictions for business owners

  • @andrewfriedman4972

    @andrewfriedman4972

    3 жыл бұрын

    Kevin Tewey what do you mean where do I keep my money?

  • @davidball7712
    @davidball77123 жыл бұрын

    Well done. Very well done.

  • @lito5953
    @lito59533 жыл бұрын

    Turned on notifications! - a comrade in Vancouver, Canada

  • @ThePastryChild
    @ThePastryChild4 жыл бұрын

    Hi comrades! Thank you so much for your work, these videos are so well done and have helped me learn many times over! However would be great if you subtitled your videos, allowing Deaf & hard of hearing people as well as people with auditory processing issues such as myself to be able to access these important educational resources. Disabled radicals are all over the place and have a lot to contribute to leftist movements, but are continually excluded in ways like this! (and just fyi, the YT auto-generated captions that are usually on your videos are always inaccurate especially when dealing with the kinds of non-English words and names that come up so frequently when discussing Marxism)

  • @themarxistproject

    @themarxistproject

    4 жыл бұрын

    Very good point. We'll certainly work on getting subtitles for all the videos!

  • @sayanbanerjee2722
    @sayanbanerjee27224 жыл бұрын

    Please make more and more videos on dialectics

  • @mv2173
    @mv21734 жыл бұрын

    Great video

  • @douglasphillips5870
    @douglasphillips58704 жыл бұрын

    Thanks. Lots of food for thought here.

  • @DC-wg1cr
    @DC-wg1cr3 жыл бұрын

    11:30, and now they want a UBI (which I am not opposed to), but without workplace reforms (ideally cooperativism) marketplace oriented reforms will just subsidize inequality.

  • @TheMightyShell
    @TheMightyShell4 жыл бұрын

    Gotta get more engagement on these videos

  • @kira_15_R3D
    @kira_15_R3D4 жыл бұрын

    awesome work, I'm being radicalized with your vids no cap, also I'm slowly spreading the knowledge with my fellow left wing politically undefined friends, they seem to agree with almost everything!

  • @khulekanimsomi131
    @khulekanimsomi1313 жыл бұрын

    How can I subscribe to your channel and get notifications for new videos, and, is it possible to request certain work to be analyzed? Khule from RSA. I really love your work.🙏

  • @themarxistproject

    @themarxistproject

    3 жыл бұрын

    There should be a bell button near the subscribe button. If you click that, it should send you notifications. Yes of course, let us know what you would like to see and we'll put it on our list!

  • @socialistlynx1264
    @socialistlynx12644 жыл бұрын

    Pretty nice video

  • @50feninga5

    @50feninga5

    4 жыл бұрын

    It's you wtf piss off

  • @socialistlynx1264

    @socialistlynx1264

    4 жыл бұрын

    @@50feninga5 no, I don't think I will. I think I am going to stick around. Because obviously you are cringe

  • @willm200
    @willm2004 жыл бұрын

    Comrade you should make a video just to introduce beginners to communism and Marxism, make the case for both. I think you would be very good at it

  • @emeraldpopcorn
    @emeraldpopcorn4 жыл бұрын

    What is being said between 3:06 - 3:12? I can't tell if the narrator is saying "forms", "informs", or something else. Just asking because I am working on captions for this video, thanks!

  • @sledgehogsoftware

    @sledgehogsoftware

    3 жыл бұрын

    Informs!

  • @AssassinFOURnolan
    @AssassinFOURnolan4 жыл бұрын

    Put the discord link/code in the comments or description pls The discord link shown at the intro is expired

  • @DS-tz4lk
    @DS-tz4lk3 жыл бұрын

    Dialectical materialism and the negation of contradictions. 🏴‍☠️beware of those who try to negate the negation of contradictions.👊🏽🏴✊🏽

  • @AraelShinji
    @AraelShinji6 ай бұрын

    Excellent video about Marxian theory

  • @LFlynn
    @LFlynn3 жыл бұрын

    Can the conflict of anarchist thought vs. communist thought be seen as a contradiction?

  • @randomstranger623

    @randomstranger623

    2 жыл бұрын

    Yes, but I think it shouldn't be antagonistic or thought of as a principal contradiction.

  • @PremierMatthew
    @PremierMatthew4 жыл бұрын

    Supurb

  • @gupyb4165
    @gupyb41653 жыл бұрын

    6:19 Marxist project: We exchanged 10 000 pencil for 1 car ✏↔️🚗 Kyle MacDonald: Amateurs 📎↔️🏠 7:36 One dollar is missing, or customer n°4 is a thief.

  • @antediluvianatheist5262
    @antediluvianatheist52624 жыл бұрын

    Is this the same voice over person that does the templin institute?

  • @antediluvianatheist5262

    @antediluvianatheist5262

    4 жыл бұрын

    Larisa?

  • @achubbs8641

    @achubbs8641

    3 жыл бұрын

    Lmao what

  • @migalu.
    @migalu.4 жыл бұрын

    dope

  • @suprithAnCom
    @suprithAnCom Жыл бұрын

    Who's the narrator?

  • @KarlMySuitcase
    @KarlMySuitcase3 ай бұрын

    I now understand what contradictions mean less than before I saw the video 😅

  • @justaguy6216
    @justaguy62163 жыл бұрын

    3:44 is this what they mean when people talk about "intersectionality".

  • @MidwestBen101

    @MidwestBen101

    Жыл бұрын

    class is the intersection of all other factors ie gender and race yes!!!

  • @chriswalker7632
    @chriswalker76324 жыл бұрын

    If this comment is blocked then I give up. KZread is pants. Anyway. Been googling the past hour for 'double-slit experiment' and 'dialectical materialism' and eventually gave up. It seemed to me that figures on the Right prejudice outcomes - much like if you were to detect a particle before it enters the slits in the double slit experiment (creating point-like particles rather than an 'interference pattern'). I won't get into 'super position' and 'entaglement' etc... But basically, 'acceleration' (from a detector for example) seems to me to be what causes particles to appear as point-like particles rather than an interference pattern: and seems to me to be why Quantum Mechanics is at odds with Einstein's Theory of General Relativity (concerning gravity) because of 'accelerating reference frames'. Acceleration/gravity seems to act to reduce 'uncertainty' in quantum systems (and in so doing reduces 'entanglement'). When you accelerate an atom it produces photons of light - it produces particles, in much the same way a detector in the double slit experiment creates point-like particles. So basically 'acceleration' is what gives us 'information' from out of the quantum uncertainty. This has a bearing in the 'second law of thermodynamics' because it says that the content of information in the universe is always increasing (the complexity is increasing - from 'order' [simple] to 'disorder' [highly complex]). But if acceleration is required to create that information in the first place, then it seems we have a contradiction regarding how fundamental the second law of thermodymanics would appear to be - as it may only apply historically in terms of the time line of the universe rather than what is yet to happen in the future? From what I can make out, the uncertainty before a detection of a particle - that it could be in many different locations - seems very much like literature I have read from the left/materialist philosophies. While the appearance of a particle - that we can be conscious of - is more similar to the philosophy on the Right of 'ideals' ect..? Call it 'The Matrix' of 'The Holographic Universe' but it is only a surface reality - like a photograph. Anyway. This probably won't even post. Thanks

  • @kerycktotebag8164
    @kerycktotebag81644 жыл бұрын

    I feel less dumb now

  • @RextheRebel
    @RextheRebel2 ай бұрын

    There are no gendered contradictions. Only complimentary differences. Just had to correct this.

  • @conservativelibertarian
    @conservativelibertarian2 жыл бұрын

    Aspect aspect aspects aspect

  • @spielophil6563
    @spielophil65634 жыл бұрын

    Aloritm

  • @Kolokommouna

    @Kolokommouna

    4 жыл бұрын

    Inglis

  • @giovannidebiase6850
    @giovannidebiase68504 жыл бұрын

    Good work! Super Marxio level up......!

  • @SN-xk2rl
    @SN-xk2rl2 жыл бұрын

    The transformation problem is not a real thing. On its own terms the "problem" is not a "problem" once time is introduced into the "transformation." Additionally, the framing of the issue in the first case is dishonest. Price of a commodity on the shelf in Walmart is shaped by a plethora of factors and changes depending on context. To claim the LTV is false because it can't determine the price of a toothbrush on the shelf at Walmart, when that price itself is a moving target, then it is not Marx that has ffailed, rather, it is the delusion that price is a stable thing in nature that is the problem.

  • @BobHank2

    @BobHank2

    Жыл бұрын

    Agreed. The video explanation assumes the existing set of products and goods just magically appeared from the earth. The video says "... there is enough food to feed all, but 1B humans are without food". The excess food was made through capitalist incentives. Lenin, Stalin, Mao all caused famines. Capitalism is harsh, true. But so are the dictatorships that enforce the Marxist ideas from the top down.

  • @AssassinFOURnolan
    @AssassinFOURnolan4 жыл бұрын

    Oh you wanna see contradiction? *whips out mao*

  • @someonewhoexist

    @someonewhoexist

    4 жыл бұрын

    ah yes, the classical contradiction of all, Starvation and well fed.

  • @PoliticalEconomy101
    @PoliticalEconomy1014 жыл бұрын

    Marx should have applied those contradictions to liberalism as well as capitalism.

  • @PoliticalEconomy101

    @PoliticalEconomy101

    4 жыл бұрын

    So basically you are clueless as to what liberalism is i guess.

  • @PoliticalEconomy101

    @PoliticalEconomy101

    4 жыл бұрын

    Your comment makes me believe otherwise

  • @wearealreadydeadfam8214

    @wearealreadydeadfam8214

    4 жыл бұрын

    Constitutional Socialism Imagine thinking Liberalism isn’t Capitalist.

  • @Ilikewater-andice
    @Ilikewater-andice2 жыл бұрын

    Communist billionaires - No contradictions!

  • @thanasis-_-

    @thanasis-_-

    9 ай бұрын

    One example?

  • @authenticallysuperficial9874
    @authenticallysuperficial98742 ай бұрын

    Another orwellian term, though not as bad as "exploitation".

  • @crobeastness
    @crobeastness3 жыл бұрын

    what an evil ideology