Abraham Rotstein, Weekend Notes XIII
Text in English to type
Robert Owen (3)
[2] P. read Cole's biography of Owen. It is a poor biography and Cole was on the defensive about Owen's spiritualism when writing it. Owen's autobiography was written when he was 84 and is a lovely book, and what Cole didn't find, P. would find. The Cole biography showed that one ever thought of appreciating Owen like we do. None of the important problems are taken up and one wonders whether Cole didn't wonder about this man. Cole wrote an excellent introduction to the Everyman edition, although he wrote a bad biography. The Everyman edition came much later and Cole put together the best sentences of his biography.
P.'s opinion was confirmed that the superlative genius of the man was never even suspected. His early success was blurred and made to fade out, including his achievements (the eminent role he played at the time).
After I left, P. read the Everyman edition of Owen from cover to cover and didn't leave out a word and it's marked and annotated. P. thought he would write the Owen chapter, but now perhaps I should. (P. read Owen morning to night for a week. He also read Cole which is a bad book and did this simply to relieve his conscience that he hadn't overlooked anything.)
With Owen it's mainly the subject matter. We would have to quote Owen and he was a terrific writer on the essential points. Owen discovered and stumbled from one thing to another, from the system, to [3] unemployment, to the trade cycle, to capitalism, to the laws of capitalism etc. He had a scientific approach. In monetary reform he turned against gold.
But capitalism still had a tremendous run.
We should quote or rephrase from the Great Transformation. The Great Transformation Owen is not even continued anywhere. How often Owen said that he would devote his life and is ready to die! (P. underlined this). This is said in his biographies and he clearly considered it martyrdom.
P. had much excitement and pleasure from the Owen work.
His life experience was a terrific success as a utopian to 1815, when the trade depression set in for almost 20 years.
Notice his use of such words as hitherto and henceforth. This reminds one of Jesus and the personal revelation passed on is terrifically impressive. P. isn't trying to make Owen great and a genius. His failings, tragedies and weaknesses are as gripping and grant as anything can be. The greatest thing is the logic which pushed him on.
This was the first trade depression that England had. They were aghast and thought England's trade would recede in the next fifty years. The didn't know and foresee the 19th century.
But Owen thought that since the machine would fill the world with plenty, the workers would be clothed and nothing would be taken from the capitalist with his empty life.
[4] Owen thought that Malthus was ridiculous - man is born single, and since he produces more than double of what he needs in his life, how can Malthus be right? Malthus is in some sense right, only he was not right for the next 80 years.
The Villages of Union would have to go one to the land, because there were no markets, […]
Owen's account of the year 1817 was true in every word, never shifting things.
His system of ideas was utterly illogical.
Why should the knowledge than man was determined by his environment convert him to tolerance? Because people weren't responsible for their views and so he could put up with anyone believing anything.
He said that he was an exception and had had these insights and this changed him. This was the way he was made.
Every person reflects his environment and this knowledge would create absolute tolerance. He never employed punishment for his education of people at Lanark where he met terrible things.
[5] (Keep his story terse and this is possible because one has much material.)
There is no logic in P.'s list of attributes which he made about Owen:
Moral statistics:
As regards moral statistics, P. thinks that Quetelet wasn't there yet. These statistics referred to vice, crime, prostitution, alcoholism, and the state of the people. By this standard New Lanark was a terrific success. These records would be regarded as the measure of the condition of the people. The terms moral statistics didn't exist yet (see the E.S.S.).
As far as factory legislation is concerned, Peel's Law of 1802 cannot be regarded as factory legislation. It referred just to the cotton industry and to the children (see the Southgate volume). Where did the Feel Law of 1802 come from? P. doesn't know and we should consult the Webbs.
Unemployment:
There was no one word for employment. These were the stardy beggars of the Tudors. … […]
The 1834 law is a peculiar idea and based on a completely different notion: … […] Everything happened between [6] 1816 and 1834 including Peterloo, and the agrarian revolt.
Also the Luddites existed in 1812. … […]
Business Cycle:
Behind unemployment, he discovered the business cycle. He said that there … […]
He despised the rich but didn't want anything taken away from them. He discovered the speculative excesses and attacked these. He discovered class, that there were two classes, the rich and the poor and he tried to show the rich how little they would lose.
He was unshakeably gradualistic and was against violence.
Trade Unions:
The first mentions of the trade union problem … […]
[7] Socialism:
He discovered socialism - if the whole society was fraternal and united them a new society would begin. The opening essay on a new society was 1813. The others came in 1814 and 1815.
Rehousing:
He thought … […]
Expensive machines:
He saw that the manufacturer had to amrtize it.
Localized animal: Toynbee's parochalism is close to this. Owen was the first to regard nations and nationalism as derived from fact that man was a localized animal.
He had a democratic and paternalistic approach: … […]
School reform:
The school reform movement of Vienna of the 1920's conquered the Anglo-Saxon world. This is not derived from Pestolozzi but from Robert Owen. His aim on teaching people to think all their lives was progressive [8] education.
The progressive education discussed in Cole is of immense importance because he had it all.
Sexual Life:
He allowed incompatibility (later he stood for promiscuity?)
Open Air Life:
… […]
Dance and Gymnastics: … […]
He discovered socialism and socialist morality. Tolerance was his answer and since it is our own answer we better look out.
He tried to obtain concessions from the higher income classes and by the time he made the Poor Relief report he had all these concessions.
He was for the pooling … […]
He said that the dividend should be distributed. He was for philanthropy and public debate.
We wrote a catechism to state his position. He wanted general and permanent reporting and his proposals were concrete. He wanted [9] absolutely to abolish … […]
It is an incredible story and nobody has given it. P. thinks … […]
Owen was convinced the populace was absolutely more degraded than before the introduction of the manufactures.
He lived till the age of 87 and died 4 days after being dragged from a platform. … […]
What happened was the discovery of society. In German, society is for Hegel the “burgerliche gesellschaft” and is social and economic life. … […]
Socialism was used once before by a Frenchman. “Charity” was used for the word tolerance.
Write about Owen's discovery of society and say that the other things come up incidentally.
Distinguish three phases of Owen's development:
First there was the factory including hygiene, high wages, factory legislation, dress, school reform, etc. then he was stopped on unemployment [10] because he couldn't … […]
[11] Under P.'s presentation there is:
… […]
For a time Bentham was one of the shareholders.
It was the Archbishop of Canterbury to whom he said tbat about Christianity. He gave a lecture in 1817 in England and declared all the religions were a fraud. Cole said that finished him. He know he was challenging everything. Can you imagine a person thinking all this up by necessity, not speculation?
He rejected class war absolutely and in the sharpest way.
People on the left wing of Chartism were all Owenites. They really meant by Owenite a socialist.
[12] P. read Owen with the care and intensity which he hasn't read for a long time. P. never read this book through since it seemed to be so repetitious.
Cole said that the secret of Owen was that he was a bit mad, … […]
Owen was mistaken on the possibilities of capitalism but think how mistaken Malthus was and Ricardo … […]
My question: Did Owen see the problem of the reality of the person and the reality of society?
It wasn't our problem that he saw. He welcomed the discovery of society as the source of tolerance and freedom. The individualism of the sects was the bans of mankind. This explains why he went far wrong on a number of things.
He was a 100% autocratic dictator and he never listened to anyone at all.
Owen has the complete idea of the transition stage to socialism. This is part of the Gotha program and touches on the question of the transition of Russian socialism to communism. There is a famous Engels sentence about the jump from necessity to freedom. It could be that Marx had it from the similar Owen sentence.
Owen had infinite compassion and was a Christian like no one else. He had faith in reason and faith in gradualism which came from reason.
[13] Tolerance he regarded as the fruit of knowledge. … […]
He was weak and all his life he must have been afraid about working in a mill.
He says that the manufacturing … […]
Re punishment: We don't know why we punish and we don't know … […]
From the point of view of social technique the parallelogram was an absurdity. … […] He had therefore to agree to people of the same ilk in the community, e.g. Catholics. … […] in [14] America. However it broke down in quarrels.
Owen said he knew that society might be formed without crime and he didn't believe in original sin. … […]
There was a strong fear of the French Revolution and of bloodshed and violence.
Our subject is the discovery of society … […]
We need an explanation of New Lanark as a boob which lasted 25 years by a man who started by borrowing 100 pounds.
The chapter on Robert Owen might be writtenn in the form of a prologue and three scenes.
The prologue might contain Robert Owen's original endowment:
- Infinite compassion (p. 35, 40, 41).
- Boundless faith in reason (the visible fact)
- Dedication unto death (pp. 94, 108, 109, 216).
- Dread of revolution (anti-violence, gradualism, anti-anti…)
- Gradualism (against prematureness)
- Miracles of reason expected (in no time).
- Tolerance - the fruit of knowledge (of what? society)
- A weakly boy (never worked in a mill).
[15] Scene 1:
… […]
Scene 2:
… […]
Scene 3:
… […]
[16] At the end of the book he shows that he will have 4 groups, those with no money, some money, much money etc. and it becomes … […]
Owen was deeply anti-revolutionary and shared the phobias of his time (the French Revolution). … […]
Up to 1813 there was no unemployment … […]
He couldn't carry through the Village of Union. He said of course, [17] if the Villages of Union were so successful then the rest of the country … […]
He prepared for 16 years during which there wasn't any depression, unemployment or crisis. … […]
In 1813 he was in the midst of the boom along with the rest of England … […]
He saw at the beginning that the whole system doesn't work and this happened … […] He [18] saw that technology would be boundless … […]
Socialism was unforeseen for him. With Villages of Union he said … […]
For the personal side we should have the six things for the prologue … […]
If we see his tremendous errors we can … […]
Also nothing should be taken from the rich. Let them become parasites. The machine would create … […]
The Marxist idea of the possibility of evolution as a socialist method neglected the problem of freedom entirely. “Vociferous friends of freedom” is a term Marx used in the Communist Manifesto. The phrase [19] “freedom to starve” became a socialist slogan.
Owen is dominated by his anti-revolutionary and pacifist … […]
[20]
[21] [22] [23]
"Freedom and Technology" - General Comments (3)
[24] It occurred to P. that the book has two questions worth raising:
1) Why is there a weakening in the insistence on freedom
and
2) How could it overcome it.
We are answering both questions and put in this way it gets you off an anti-totalitarian book, which is meaningless and goes in the old political ruts. Our objectivity consists in pointing out that we are unfaithful to freedom, and in pointing out to the Russians that they are in the same boat as e are. These are the foundations for such a position and the reader begins to see that the superiority we claim, is on good ground.
[…]
[25] The chapter on social discontent would be a further chapter about the discovery of society. We should take note of the comments in "Weekend XII” and relate this to the discovery of society and the early Marx. We should also add Fourier and Saint-Simon and see whether they were or were not further discoverers of society. See also the Mantoux book.
[26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] ↑
Comments on my "Introduction", Draft #1
[37] The book begins in a subject matter way: one subject and one interest, and in an argumentative way. Out of these elements and our own growing clarity we can build up simple and forceful arguments in one direction.
There is no problem of writing, just clarity and comprehensiveness.
The Introduction is on the lines not of answers but of questions, P. doesn't think that we are much advanced beyond this and it is as much as we start with. P. thinks
[38] [39] [40]
The Great Transformation (4)
[41] [42] ↑
Interdisciplinary Project (2)
[43] [44] [45] ↑
The Early Marx (3)
[46] ↑
Sartre and Camus
[47] ↑
Modern Politics (4)
[48] ↑
America
[49] [50] [51] ↑
China (2)
[52] ↑
Notes
Russia
[53] ↑
Canada
Adler
[54] Adler[1] was utterly and had much more influence on education children than Freud. His name get lost. His was more an injunction than Freud's, which was a discovery.