An Eagle's Eye

Culture signifies man. Norwegian is not English. A lady from Bodø thinks a bit differently from a lady from Trondheim. Even within Trondheim, we will think a bit differently from one part of the city to another, dependent upon raising.

Let me remind you of the fact Karl Marx (1818 - 83) was German. Max Weber (1864-1920) was too. Marx fled Germany. Why? He was a Jude. Sigmund Freud fled Austria in 1938. He was a Jude. In the original constitution of Norway, from 1814, Paragraph 2 states “Judes are still exempt from entering the nation.”

In “The Communist Manifesto”, which Marx wrote before he fled, he coined what in English has become “alienation”. Without knowing for sure, I think the term in German must be “Entfremdung”. Perhaps the English translation does not really pay justice to Marx. In English one says “estranged”. Is that it?

In Sociology the writings of Marx and Weber might be compared, and one will label Marxist thought “materialistic” and Weber’s view “idealistic”. It is rather difficult not to admit this notion. Though, in “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” Weber is clear on value’s determination of production. In the conclusion of his discussion, he calls the “protestant ethic” an iron cage. And what are values, other than modes of production?

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