Marx / Mill : revolutionary anti-capitalism Victorian Literature

THE MARX-MILL DEATHMATCH

99 Cent. 1999 Andras Gursky, MOMA, NYC

JS Mill: “On Liberty” (1859) “[I]n things which do not primarily concern others, individuality should assert itself” (57) In proportion to the development of his individuality, each person becomes more valuable to himself, and is therefore capable of being more valuable to others.” (63, emphasis added)

“Life will always be to a large extent what we ourselves make it “Life will always be to a large extent what we ourselves make it.” --Samuel Smiles

Individualism? MILL: “In the part [of conduct] which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own mind and body, the individual is sovereign” (13) MARX: “Political economists are fond of Robinson Crusoe stories…” (C 169)

Imperialism? MILL: Despotism is a legitimate mode of government in dealing with barbarians, provided the end be their improvement. (13-14) MARX: “[The bourgeoisie] compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilization into their midst, i.e. to become bourgeois themselves” (CM 16)

“Custom” vs. “Liberty” MILL: “Human beings are no longer born into their place in life, and chained down by an inexorable bond to the place they are born to, but are free to employ their own faculties, and such favourable chances as offer, to achieve the lot which may appear to them most desirable” (Subjection 134) MARX: “[The bourgeoisie] has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation.” (CM 15-16)