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The following books by Robert Paul Wolff are available on Amazon.com as e-books: KANT'S THEORY OF MENTAL ACTIVITY, THE AUTONOMY OF REASON, UNDERSTANDING MARX, UNDERSTANDING RAWLS, THE POVERTY OF LIBERALISM, A LIFE IN THE ACADEMY, MONEYBAGS MUST BE SO LUCKY, AN INTRODUCTION TO THE USE OF FORMAL METHODS IN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY.
Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.

NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: LECTURES ON KANT'S CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON. To view the lectures, go to YouTube and search for "Robert Paul Wolff Kant." There they will be.

NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: LECTURES ON THE THOUGHT OF KARL MARX. To view the lectures, go to YouTube and search for Robert Paul Wolff Marx."





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Saturday, January 9, 2016

IT'S NOT EASY BEING GREEN

I checked YouTube and found that the video of my first lecture had drawn 138 views by 3 p.m. today.  I was elated.  Then I noticed that videos of my old UMass Marxist economist colleague Richard Wolff doing his monthly reports on the economy were drawing 40,000 or 50,000 views each.  I was depressed. 

But I bethought myself of the lovely old [1991] Gerard Depardieu movie Tous les Matins du Monde, and was comforted.  The movie tells the story of a great musician, the viola da gamba player St. Colombe, who retires to the countryside with his two daughters and spends his time in isolation perfecting his art and striving to raise the playing of the viola da gamba to previously unattained heights of pure musical beauty.  The young, eager, ambitious Marin Marais [Depardieu, played as a young man by Depardieu's son] shows up hoping to be taken on as a pupil by St. Colombe.  Marin Marais flourishes, makes his way at court, and becomes the king's favorite musician, but he does so by selling his soul.  St. Colombe continues in isolation, seeking musical perfection.

Now, all of this is wildly unfair to Rick Wolff, of course, who is merely vastly more popular than I, not less pure.  Indeed, if anything, Rick is a more plausible candidate as keeper of the flame than I.  And 138 views in twenty-four hours is not bad,  After all, I would have been happy during my active teaching career to draw a fourth that many students to a course on Ideological Critique.

And yet.

The Cloud is a stern mistress. 

2 comments:

formerly a wage slave said...

Your former colleague RD Wolff has been very busy with the public in the past few years, with a weekly radio program, traveling around the country, appearing regularly on RTV and elsewhere, as well as making videos available on Youtube. I believe he also has some assistance with all of this. And he has two websites. So, please don't be sad about a smaller number of viewers on Youtube.

Robert Paul Wolff said...

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers [and sisters, but that is anachronistic.]