Abraham Rotstein, Weekend Notes XXIII

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Weekend Notes (Overview)

The New West (2)


Text in English to type

[2] Another thing which P. wishes to do is the outline of The New West. […]

In The New West […]

P.’s idea is that a new humanism might start – like the 14th century. It s a matter of a period of history. Our task can’t be more than formulating a suggestion or proposal for The New West. It is not that we are The New West.

Paul’s idea […]

Paul thinks that Schumpeter, Fromm and P. are what should be offered to the world.

P. May have to part company with Paul, and tell him […]

Not more can be done […]

[3] P. told […]

The New West should be outlined for our own purposes, not for the publisher.

The New West people would include Boulding, Myrdal etc.

But this idea doesn’t exist yet. Some who were communists might say why should we continue on this present East-West […]

This Hungarian affair makes it doubtful that you can leave our Russian. It is a great disappointment to all who thought […]

The West’s problems are really its success in science, technology and socialism. We have to show how it deal with the problems which are great of the West. […]

It is almost like some saying […]

P. doesn’t start with the idea that the West is finished. How do we know?

Paul is determined to work out the outline of the book.

How do we present the decline of the West? How sudden and how unexpected was the decline of the West, not only political and [4] military but also spiritual and intellectual! But how do we explain the suddenness?

P. Meant in the 19th century collapse, […] But this is to explain Western civilization by a political grouping called the West and one identifies democracy with capitalism and the other national status with colonial possessions. These caused the sudden catastrophic decline in 10 years.

This not the cause. The reason is the West is unable to cope with its achievements. There is a lot to say about these points.

The New West should […]

The task of the style in The New West […]

We can’t know the future and if we did it would be the end of us. […]

It is the West which created the problem […]

[5] Myself: […]

The vast […]

We left out […]

Paul is against […]

Paul would never […]

(P.’s statement written in my note book:)

The New West
Introduction

The sudden decline of the West

[…]

Part I: […]

Freedom and Technology (7)

[9] P. wrote to Beldsoe that it is going slowly and in case it gets finished P. would offer him the option because he doesn’t […]

In Owen one finds the discovery of the machine and the ethical renaissance together. This runs through the whole history of the 19th and 20th century.

On a deeper level mankind is adjusting to an industrial civilization in its basic values.

This may be true but it shouldn’t destroy the early Marx chapter and is a preparation for Shaw.

Aug. 10, 1958

Shaw (6)

[12] If I read Shaw and quoted from there the plain ethical injunctions and put them together, people wouldn’t believe that this is Shaw. Shaw put these in the mouths of people he discredited. I have nothing to do but to quote from the works of Shaw, from the positive passage and the introduction.

The idea that Shaw contains a book of moral principles and morality would be one of the most startling discoveries. The reverse of this is the reality of society, and that would be the situations in which these things are said. I wouldn’t be hunting the smark.

This thought gripped P. because it has a simplicity with which all the rest can’t compare. We would be (as the Germans put it) plain as a box on the ear – (Klar [w]ie ein vachen). Our position on Shaw would be that simple.

Man has to live up to his true character and the basically moral standards of existence, although in our society it is just not so.

Take your own basic gifts as a reality and not accepting them is futile.

In the plays Shaw insists on your true individuality being real i.e., coming out. There is nothing else here. Living in an immoral society with conventional trappings is immensely funny.

The girl in Candida misses the life content because she doesn’t accept that she is in love with the Reverend and therefore regards Marchbank’s friendship as an insult.

[13] P. thought that Shaw’s artistic instruments is his postulate of man being a complete trinity of the physical, psychological and spiritual. This is shown for example in Captain Brassbound’s Conversion or The Devil’s Disciple of The Shewing Up of Blanco Posnet. In all three, some fellow insists that he is a rascal because it is a convention, but e.g., he rescues a woman because he is a sentimentalist. There is something similar in Androcles and The Lion.

Paul Medow (3)

Interdisciplinary Project (10)

Notes

Fromm

Ancient History

Politics (2)

The Capitalistic Manifesto (3)

Comments on Schweitzer's Review of Trade and Market

Personal (6)

Text Informations

Date: June 30 - August 10, 1958 (Interview)
KPA: 45/19