Genius of the Modern World (16/06/2016) BBC4
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This Thursday 16 June 2016 on BBC Four at 9pm
Quote:Marx
Genius of the Modern World Episode 1 of 3Bettany Hughes investigates the revolutionary ideas of Karl Marx. Born to an affluent Prussian family, Marx became an angry, idealistic radical, constantly on the run for his political agitating and incendiary writing. In Paris he first formulated his explosive analysis of capitalism and its corrosive effects on human nature. In Brussels he co-authored the Communist Manifesto with Frederick Engels. In London his obsessive theorizing dragged his family into poverty and tragedy.
Marx's masterpiece Das Capital was largely overlooked in his lifetime, and only 11 people attended his funeral. Yet his ideas would generate one of the most influential, and divisive, ideologies in history. Drawing on expert opinion and new evidence, Bettany reveals the flesh-and-blood man and his groundbreaking ideas.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07gpdbx
trailer
I hope individual members consult with the party before firing off any complaints on behalf of the party following the programme, as happened with the Masters of Money with Stephanie Flanders programme in October / November 2012.http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/forum/general-discussion/masters-money-response-bbc
Actually, apart from the title and the shots of Lenin, Stalin and Mao at the beginning introducing the whole three part series (and which she later said were distortions of Marx's views) it wasn't too bad, even good as a basic summary of Marx's life and views.
jondwhite wrote:Better than Flanders, better than Portillo and better than Jones.I thought the film was an unmitigated disappointment barely saved by the observations of some of its participants.Perhaps this outcome was inevitable when you get a historian to describe the life of a political philosopher – facts rather than analysis. But at least Marx’s life was sufficiently full of strife, tragedy and repulsive medical afflictions to just about hold our attention for an hour. Meanwhile, the job of assessing and/or illuminating Marx’s ideas was left, too infrequently, to contributors like Paul Mason.“It seems to me that Marx’s life story trumpets a warning,” concluded Bettany Hughes, “that charismatic, explosive ideas can be twisted from their original intentions and manipulated for malign ends.”What her film singularly failed to do was either to explore or explain why, in Marx’s case, this happened…
On Monday 20 June 2016 Radio 4 are broadcasting a programme Marxism Today with loyal SWPer Judith Orrhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07gf9l7
gnome wrote:jondwhite wrote:Better than Flanders, better than Portillo and better than Jones.I thought the film was an unmitigated disappointment barely saved by the observations of some of its participants.Perhaps this outcome was inevitable when you get a historian to describe the life of a political philosopher – facts rather than analysis. But at least Marx’s life was sufficiently full of strife, tragedy and repulsive medical afflictions to just about hold our attention for an hour. Meanwhile, the job of assessing and/or illuminating Marx’s ideas was left, too infrequently, to contributors like Paul Mason.“It seems to me that Marx’s life story trumpets a warning,” concluded Bettany Hughes, “that charismatic, explosive ideas can be twisted from their original intentions and manipulated for malign ends.”What her film singularly failed to do was either to explore or explain why, in Marx’s case, this happened…
If you thought Bettany Hughes was bad, I wonder what you make of the radio programme.
jondwhite wrote:gnome wrote:jondwhite wrote:Better than Flanders, better than Portillo and better than Jones.I thought the film was an unmitigated disappointment barely saved by the observations of some of its participants.Perhaps this outcome was inevitable when you get a historian to describe the life of a political philosopher – facts rather than analysis. But at least Marx’s life was sufficiently full of strife, tragedy and repulsive medical afflictions to just about hold our attention for an hour. Meanwhile, the job of assessing and/or illuminating Marx’s ideas was left, too infrequently, to contributors like Paul Mason.“It seems to me that Marx’s life story trumpets a warning,” concluded Bettany Hughes, “that charismatic, explosive ideas can be twisted from their original intentions and manipulated for malign ends.”What her film singularly failed to do was either to explore or explain why, in Marx’s case, this happened…
If you thought Bettany Hughes was bad, I wonder what you make of the radio programme.
Missed it.
I have just listened to the Radio Programme Marxism Today on I Player.It is supposedly part of a series called Analysis. The latter is conspicuous by its absence. It was vacuous, trivial and totally wrong! How the hell it got by the editor is a question that needs addressing. There was no attempt at defining terms.It consisted of opinions and assertions. Moreover, the political bias was painfully obvious.BBC:Bullied By Conservatives. Impartiality?Please don't make me laugh! If a listener bereft of knowledge of Marx or Marxism listened to this garbage s/he would end up knowing even less.Bad,Bad,Bad!The presenter is allegedly a journalist.For The Beano?In comparison the Bettany Hughes programme has an intellectual pedigree and she has done her homework.Moreover, she makes a fair attempt at getting to the essence of Marx in a restricted time slot.Her presentation of Nietzsche is also creditable. Both act as an incentive to explore further.I'm conjecturing that given the revived interest in Marx and thinkers influenced by Marx, the Neo Liberal elites are getting nervous.I've noticed in Waterstones freshly minted copies of Popper's The Open Society And Its Enemies and Hayek's The Road To Serfdom.An attempt at balance?Please, I'll die laughing.It's a counter attack!
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