History’s itch

Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS) is not, as some may imagine, the exuberantly forbidding name of a stern Soviet apparatchik. But is it one of the reasons why the world had to bear stern Soviet apparatchiks and therefore, by extension, why world history turned out as it did? HS is a terribly painful skin disorder and one that can produce psychological effects that include feelings of alienation. A dermatologist at a British university has argued that not only did Karl Marx suffer from HS but the ailment’s ‘known’ side effects may well have provided grim inspiration for Marx’s famous conceptualisation of alienation. As those who know their Marx know, Marxist praxis without the theory of alienation is like Stalinist rule without Beria (okay, admittedly, some of those who know and swear by their Marx won’t find that example suitable). If carbuncles and worse didn’t afflict Marx, if he felt better, would we have been spared some of the grand experiments in ultimate human liberty the 20th century saw?

Needless to say our sympathies are wholly with the German exile in London when it comes to personal privations. No one should have to suffer from debilitating disorders and there is real tragedy in knowing one of the most influential intellects of any time had to struggle in such a fashion. But the larger point survives: how one wishes history could be rolled back and Marx accorded dream dermatological parameters. Marxists may say this is frivolous bourgeoisie mischief-making. If Marx hadn’t written what he did, someone else would have. Capitalism’s epitaph is in any case written by its own greed. The real carbuncles are festering on a society driven by profit and property.

But frivolous speculation being the calling card of our class, we can’t but take this forward. Knowing what we do about Marx now, how do we respond to Marxists deeply dissatisfied with the state of the world? Ask them, comrade, what’s itching you.