A Visit to Karl Marx's Apartment
Lew Rockwell recently mentioned Karl Marx. From the Portable Karl Marx, here is a Prussian police agent's report on a visit to Marx's apartment in London:
In his private life he is a highly disorderly, cynical human being and a bad manager. He lives the life of a gypsy, of an intellectual Bohemian; washing, combing and changing his linen are things he does rarely, he likes to get drunk. He is often idle for days on end, but when he has work to do, he will work day and night with tireless endurance. For him there is no such thing as a fixed time for sleeping and waking. He will often stay up the whole night and then lie down on the sofa, fully dressed, around midday and sleep till evening, untroubled by the fact that the whole world comes and goes through his room.
Marx lives in one of the worst, and therefore one of the cheapest, quarters of London. He occupies two rooms. One of then looks out on the street—that is the salon. The bedroom is at the back. There is not one clean and solid piece of furniture to be found in the whole apartment: everything is broken, tattered and torn; there is a thick coat of dust everywhere; everywhere, too, the greatest disorder. In the middle of the salon stands a large old-fashioned table covered with oil cloth. On it lie his manuscripts, books and newspapers, then the children’s toys, his wife’s mending and patching, together with several cups with chipped rims, dirty spoons, knives, forks, lamps, an ink-pot, glasses, dutch clay pipes, tobacco ash—in one word everything is topsy turvy, and all on the same table. A rag-and-bone man would step back ashamed from such a remarkable collection. When you enter Marx’s room, smoke and tobacco fumes make your eyes water so badly, that you think for a moment that you are groping about in a cave. Gradually your eyes become accustomed to the fog and you can make out a few objects. Everything is dirty and covered with dust. It is positively dangerous to sit down. One chair has only three legs. On another chair, which happens to be whole, the children are playing at cooking. This one is offered to the visitor but the children’s cooking has not been wiped away: if you sit down you risk a pair of trousers. None of this embarrasses Marx or his wife.
Comments (28)
Hey now, it's possible to enjoy drinking and keep a sloppy house without being a communist!
Published: August 4, 2005 8:55 PM
Don't forget, the Marxes had a maid (whom he got into trouble).
All of this seems very much like my own approach to domestic management, albeit in bachelor circumstances, and currently without the sporadic energy (due to a medical condition which is slowly passing). Maybe there's hope for me yet. What earth shaking work should I do?
Published: August 4, 2005 10:37 PM
Personal things like this can be interesting, like a side note, but otherwise, what does this have to do with anything else?
Published: August 5, 2005 8:32 AM
Come to think of it, Einstein was a bit on the scruffy side...does that discredit him?
Published: August 5, 2005 9:04 AM
Welp, that was what I call a cheap shot...
Published: August 5, 2005 9:30 AM
It probably is, but I also found it very interesting...
Published: August 5, 2005 9:51 AM
Why would anyone accept at face value the word of some secret police agent who obviously values ideas and scholarship far less than personal life style details? Nowadays this police agent could be a conservative talk show host or a reporter for the National Inquirer such is his sense and sensibility. This blurb says more about the author than the subject.
Many of the finest minds that humanity has produced over the centuries were slobs or eccentric in their own way too.
Published: August 5, 2005 2:54 PM
To Mr. Massoud:
To whom are you refering when you say "some secret police agent"?
Some of the finest minds that humanity has produced over the centuries were, indeed, slobs or eccentrics of some sort, but so have been a few of the greatest charlatans and crackpots - Mr. Marx, for instance. Slobbery and unkeepness do not make anyone great, not by themselves anyway.
Published: August 5, 2005 4:55 PM
Mr. Torres,
Please note the opening sentence of the post. To wit:
"...here is a Prussian police agent's report on a visit to Marx's apartment in London:"
So the implication we are to draw is that Marxist theory is wrong because Marx was a slob? I think that is an invalid form of argument. Marxist theory is demonstrably incorrect but not because of his housekeeping or lifestyle.
A.M.
Published: August 5, 2005 7:40 PM
Marx's personal tastes are relevant in this respect: what he found pleasant may bear some relationship to the personal values he thought a socialist utopia would express. And indeed, life in 1970s Moscow offered much the same opportunities for self-realisation that he seemed to have cared about. Was this a coincidence or a common cultural trait carried forward from that era and expressed a century later?
George Bernard Shaw once wrote "Do not do unto thers as you would have them do unto you. Your tastes may not be the same."
Published: August 6, 2005 2:09 AM
Mr. Lawrence
If I can produce an anecdote (from a "police agent" or such,) that says von Mises had bad breath, or didn't change his underwear regularly does this information, (even if true) invalidate Austrian economics?
Making fun of Marx is one thing, but your efforts here are an attempt to carry your argument beyond your evidence. You say "may bear some relationship", but offer no proof. I deny the connection altogether.
A.M.
Published: August 6, 2005 7:27 AM
Mr. Massoud, you misunderstand this use of the English language; hal darassti al lughra inghilese?
When I write "may" I am in no sense arguing, but rather pointing out an amusing hypothesis that was suggested by this piece. Of course there is no evidence here that supports the hypothesis - it is of the nature of hypotheses that they await further enquiry and testing.
When I put "amusing", I am of course using it in both the sense "causing laughter" and the sense "instructive". It seemed worth presenting the hypothesis because it is ridiculous and yet thought provoking. But I do not suggest any line of logical argument; you read too much into it there.
Published: August 8, 2005 3:34 AM
Well, here's still another aspect as I recently read in a german book on the fallacies of history :
Marx apparently never has been arrested in Germany, although clearly in conflict with the ideas of the monarchy. He did get arrested in Belgium and England... This, and other signs also lead the author to believe that Marx sheerly was a paid "informal" agent of the Prussian police... at least he was manipulated to do much harm to the other neighboring nations.
How come a prussian policeman visits Marx's home in London?! Perhaps this report shows more of the employer's doubts over the fitness of his "secret weapon"... than it does criticizing. And still there's a compliment: Marx is capable to work a lot.
(I cannot give the book's quote right now but if someone's interested he'd just have to wait for it 2 weeks)
Published: August 8, 2005 3:40 AM
Ali,
Your remark about Marx and Mises is very interesting.
We know about Mises's impeccable behaviour and presentation.
We know about Mises's writings, clear, coherent, correct results.
Could you apply the same adjectives to Marx's writings?
Could there be a connection?
quote : It was in a letter to Gary Becker in May 1955, when I was in Britain, referring to a draft of his thesis that he had sent to me: “Nine times out of ten,� I wrote after criticizing his exposition, “sloppy writing reflects (and advertises) sloppy thinking.� unquote (Friedman, Becker, Truck and Barter blog)
Published: August 9, 2005 4:41 AM
So what if Marx was a slob and Mises neat and tidy? It is highly subjective to interpret from this the soundness of eithers theories.
Albert Speer was a pretty tidy and methodical guy as were some of his more unsavoury peers.
I judge Marx and Mises on the soundness of their theories, as I imagine they would expect you to.
Published: August 9, 2005 8:10 AM
The way you live reflects without doubt the way you think.
Published: August 9, 2005 12:14 PM
Mr. Massoud,
No, Marxist theory is unsound by virtue of its fallacious pressumptions, for instance the labor theory on value, and not due to Charles lack of housekeeping habilities.
Marx's untidiness is more an amusing piece of trivia than a de facto debunking of his economic theories; as the former it was posted. The slobbish man has been proven wrong many times over, by excellent economists and thinkers and by the facts, not by cleaning ladies.
Just because the account was by a Prussian police agent (a cop), it does not necessarily mean he was a SECRET agent.
Published: August 9, 2005 1:52 PM
Edgar, how can you make such a statement as though it is a fact when one can think of countless historical figures who refute it. Mozart comes to mind (trying to stick with German/Austrian figures to make it easy for you).
Published: August 10, 2005 2:33 AM
Jonathan,
Do all neat and tidy individuals produce theories? Correct theories?
Interesting logical tests and classifications.
Domains :
Individuals : neat tidy, untidy, slobs, producing theories, not producing theories.
Writings : clear, coherent, muddy, incoherent, sloppy.
Theories : correct, incorrect.
...
Where do the domains intersect and who falls into the intersections?
Published: August 10, 2005 4:36 AM
The way you live reflects without doubt the way you think.
While I would tend to agree, I don't think you can make a clear-cut case that tidiness is always better than sloppiness. I recall that a study of offices and desks indicated that some sloppiness actually made one more productive, because less time was spent looking for what you need.
And besides, developing theories depends not just on gathering and sorting information, but also on the intelligence and inspiration necessary to formulate and integrate novel or disparate ideas.
Published: August 10, 2005 10:50 AM
Ad hominem!
Published: August 10, 2005 12:06 PM
This is a funny and entertaining thread so, of course i cannot resist adding to it:
I have been mostly sloppy for most of my life (i keep my books and articles organized though) and i can say without hesitation that tidiness is always better than sloppiness. :) When someone tidies up my space i feel like a million bucks again! Getting tidy and organized is one of my ambitions in life, and my rotten procrastination keeps me from it.
Published: August 10, 2005 3:22 PM
Raul,
I have no idea...maybe you misunderstand me. Simply put I think it is folly to ponder whether neat people produce better theories. If you could somehow test this objectively (no thanks) would a positive correlation be causal or spurious? At any rate, we don't need to. Marx is plain enough to refute on logical grounds which is where I am sure Mises would rather stand his ground than on how tidy he was.
Published: August 11, 2005 1:52 AM
What, nobody's seen the obvious? Ludwig von Mises as Felix and Karl Marx as Oscar in The Odd Couple! Hey, Hollywood! Got a movie idea for you...
Published: August 11, 2005 1:21 PM
I am not a psychologist but have family members who are and when the article talks about Marx working feverishly or not at all, I believe this indicates he may have been a manic depressive.
And although I have only read excerpts on Mises book the "Anti-Capitalist Mentality" he describes some of the most strident critics of capitalism as people who could be affected with similar afflictions.
So could it be that Marx's had mental problems which led him to write such unbalanced criticism of capitalism.
What about the late economist Julian Simon author of the book "The Ultimate Resource" before he become a very public advocate for free markets he suffered with depression (which he wrote the book "bad mood" about his experience) and until he got over that affliction was a strong critic of capitalism.
Published: August 15, 2005 5:22 AM
i am doing a report on karl marx an di dont really know anything about him and these are the things i need to know:adjectives about him, hobbies, favorite songs,movies,books, quote that tells su about the character, and what they are likley to become.
so if anyone could e-mail me information about him about anyone of these thinsg it would be very apriciated my e-mail address is
Zachary_Jackary@hotmail.com
thanks you :D
Published: June 9, 2006 12:46 PM
i am doing a report on karl marx an di dont really know anything about him and these are the things i need to know:adjectives about him, hobbies, favorite songs,movies,books, quote that tells su about the character, and what they are likley to become.
so if anyone could e-mail me information about him about anyone of these thinsg it would be very apriciated my e-mail address is
Zachary_Jackary@hotmail.com
thanks you :D
Published: June 9, 2006 12:47 PM
i am doing a report on karl marx an di dont really know anything about him and these are the things i need to know:adjectives about him, hobbies, favorite songs,movies,books, quote that tells su about the character, and what they are likley to become.
so if anyone could e-mail me information about him about anyone of these thinsg it would be very apriciated my e-mail address is
Zachary_Jackary@hotmail.com
thank you :D
Published: June 9, 2006 12:48 PM