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David Ready's avatar

Time to get into politics Andrew. Brilliant analysis. I find myself in a constant super position with all the parties where they are all somewhat right and all batshit crazy.

Dr Andrew Dickson's avatar

You are not alone e hoa! I hear this from heaps of people. My biggest issue with politics is that I'm not entirely sure I'd be able to maintain the dress standard lol.

Riley Chance's avatar

Great read! I think we all need to become "tradesman Marxists" - we need to know enough so that the wool can't be constantly pulled over our eyes.

We (society - the people) have been presented a single version of the economic facts of life for so long (perpetuated by an uncritical media) and so consistently that how the economy works has become common wisdom. The problem is that common wisdom doesn't have to be right (and in this case it isn't) it just has to be commonly accepted. It was common wisdom that the sun revolved around the earth - and we were wrong.

Breaking that is not easy. I remember the article Crampton (of the Business Roundtable to use their correct name) wrote about how non-traditional economists were like anti-vaxxers. I got into a debate with him about that on twitter - until he blocked me. No wonder I've abandoned social media.

I love the reading list! Reminds me how infrequently our students clicked a link - maybe it's all changed.

Dr Andrew Dickson's avatar

It's interesting. Students now do click the links, partly because they know they can get an LLM to summarise a complex reading. I'm sort of very happy about this, because they actually get the ideas, and for some of them that inspires further inquiry. Many of our colleagues though are apoplectic, and really want to watch students grind through an original Hegelian text... I ask them: "Is that for your jouissance, or the students?" ;-)

Dave  Cameron's avatar

Wonderful ! That gives a whole new perspective to Marx!

Dr Andrew Dickson's avatar

Thanks Dave - there are A LOT of people who think they understand Marx. Almost none of them have read any of Das Kapital. He's the economist who first described the system that we now live in. I genuinely cannot understand how any economist can call themselves an economist without having properly studied Marx. But they certainly do!!

Matt LdK's avatar

Excellent.

Dave  Cameron's avatar

And, I’m keenly anticipating some application to our National economy. I see a few already.