Das Kapital manga
Leo Lewis of the Times has declared that Japanese bookstores believe next month’s release of a manga version of Das Kapital will be the “publishing phenomenon of the year:”
The comic, which goes on sale early next month, plays into a growing fascination among Japan’s hard-working labour force with socialist literature and joins a collection of increasingly fierce literary critiques of the global capitalist system.
In recent decades, while Japan Inc was still delivering collective prosperity to the nation, public criticism of companies has been muted. Unions were weak and acquiescent. But now, as the country sinks into its second recession in seven year, the sackings begin and the gap widens between rich and poor, a growing number of Japanese believe the problem lies with capitalism itself.
The ambitious comic rendering of Das Kapital is designed to parcel the complex economic theories of Marx’s hefty original in a format which Japanese adore digesting their information from; it will also be compressed into a size that can be slipped discretely into a Chanel evening bag, or slid into the top drawer of a desk when the bosses are looking.
Lewis, who was given a sneak preview copy of the manga, does not share its exact title or publisher with readers. [A quick search of Google/Yahoo News Japan found no articles about the new manga, although there was some coverage of a Das Kapital boom going on in Europe right now.]
[via FG]
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I have heard nothing of a Das Kapital boom anywhere in Europe.
We get most of the European networks here and I checked all their text pages, but could not find anything about Das Kapital in any form or format…
Uh oh, is this the precursor to an upcoming communist revolution in Japan?
Will the next generation of students take part in demonstrations and riots and clash with the riot police in a recreation of the events a few decades ago?
I can’t see it happening, especially with communism proven by numerous examples to be one of the dumbest collective decisions people can make, but you never know…
Cuba has a good health service…
Yeah, and capitalism has been so successful?
..he says on the capitalist internet from his capitalist computer, drinking his capitalist coffee in his capitalist clothes..
Didn’t Churchill say something about democracy being the worst form of government, with the exception of everything else that’s been tried?
same goes for capitalism as an economic system..least worst option..and only good option until we invent limitless free energy and material goods
Marxism hasn’t fully proved itself yet. Plus I’ve lived in socialism and it was alright. Far better than now. And I’m saying this form my communist apartment, sitting communist furniture and thanks to my communist education.
I’m waiting for the next revolution to end this unholy coalition with my capitalistic foe- the computer ….
It doesnt count if your in a communist state with a capitalist economic model. I am sure the peasants living under the communist system and communist economic model might have something to say about that, that is if they can find a unsupervised ISP.
Level3, is the “everything you use is capitalist” (whatever that really means) your only argument? It is kind of loyal, though futile, to defend capitalism now, of all times.
But at least you’re admitting that capitalism has flaws now. Reality finally sink in that deep, at least. I had almost the exact same conversation with another conservative.
And for the last time, don’t frickin’ mix up capitalism and democracy. The two are not the same, whatever right-wingers may say.
Where the confusion comes in that capitalism can bring greater freedom – people need to have the freedom to make and spend money, and the more ways to do that, the better. I don’t get ten different types of bread or the ability to fly to Bali because Japan is a democracy, after all. I get it because there are ten different bread companies, and airline companies or travel companies that want to make money. I can, theoretically, have perfect freedom in terms of living well, but no political voice at all. Come to think of it, as a foreigner in Japan, I do….
Oh no, helical, lets not scare the people with such ideas! :-p
Talking about the end being communism is a bit extreme, no? A bit paranoid?
But there is also nothing wrong with chopping off the heads of State – which, in America, people are so afraid to do and are happy enough to think that “voting” is democracy while they sit there and let the government give hand outs to let the executives get away with their money!
Propaganda has ruined peoples minds about Communism, Socialism, Marxism.
WORD!!
Hey, Japan has you covered there … sorta kinda maybe.
Let’s see how long Aso lasts, though Abe and Fukuda aren’t too encouraging examples:)
Of course, Japan of the late 1960s to early 1990s was not a capitalist model as Marx would have described it, and if anything, the generous employee benefits and corporation-as-family style of labour management were concessions gained by labour agitation in the 1960s, something that this author seems not to realise.
Yes and it worked because the Americans were transferring free technology, tolerating trade surpluses, provided free military assistance and artificially weakening the yen.
Not so easy these days without a communist aggressor.
Oh boo hoo. Poor sad superpower! Look, technology transfers, the U.S. Japan Alliance and the Bretton Woods system were all freeely entered into, nay enthusiastically initiated by, these Americans that the Japanese were ostensibly taking advantage of. And in fact I’m not too sure this was all that pertinent anyway. Much of Japan’s “wealth” and constant fiscal stimulus was sustained by public debt, not necessarily economic advantage over the competition.
But let’s face it, that’s not what we are talking about here. I’m merely stating that Japan’s efforts at European style “socialism” were stymied from the start by those who were supposed to be its biggest promoters – the unions. But this isn’t to say the unions were docile: they did drive concessions out of business. They just did so through informal guarantees with business rather than through legislation.
And in any case, if all those technology transfers originated from more advanced American research why couldn’t build an automobile that didn’t suck a small oil field dry every time it went down to the supermarket?
Everything in moderation, everybody………..
I just realized this article wasn’t linked in the Related Articles section.
I bet this is the precedent that made the bookstores expect such an old book like Das Kapital to be a bestseller after just repackaging it with more pictures.
If only we could conduct some sort of experiment to see which economic system works better. Like if we could take a couple of random, arbitrary countries… say Germany and Korea, and then split them in half and make one side capitalist and one side communist and let them do their thing for like 50 years. Then we could see which one is doing better economically and have a solid, empirical answer to the question.
oh well…
Now if we could only get people to understand that communism and socialism are not the same, and that the communist model of the USSR was not what Marx envisioned, and that the communism of North Korea is not even what the USSR was. In fact, it’s so left wing that it’s come full circle and is now a very right-wing protectionist nationalist model.
Then, if we could get people to recognize that there exists such a country as Sweden that employs socialism and democracy, and it works!
Then, if we could get Americans to understand that their “capitalist” system is only free for the people whose countries aren’t being invaded for energy resources, and that neo-imperialism is very much at play in the world, and capitalism is its driving force.
Remember that Marxism comes in both left-marxism and right-marxism.
Actually members of the George W Bush administration are considered to be right-marxists. Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney actually hails from such a thinking.
The right-marxism put into american power politics is in the idea that western democracy can be made through enforcing military power onto un-democratic countries. Such as with the war in Iraq. In the newspapers this thinking is better known as neo-conservatism.
So Marx is used by both communists and capitalists.