I don't often disagree with James, but here I just wanna point out that the way he describes the socialist ideological concepts and the "transformative" aspects of the Gulags in the Soviet Union and the Laogai in China, is the EXACT same as the concept of the National socialist concentration camps. Though I understand why you think those would be different - because the National Socialists actually had 2 types of camps. The Konzentrationslager (KZ) and the Vernichtungslager (VZ).
The latter were extermination camps, which is what we think of nowadays when we think of concentration camps, but actually those types of camps were precisely NOT called concentration camps. The actual concentration camps had the exact same purpose as the Gulags.
The term bourgeoisie literally means city dweller and was historically and stereotypically identified with the Jews. Because in Europe Jews were historically forbidden from owning farms and from entering professional guilds. So they typically lived in the cities because they were banned from the type of jobs you would find in rural areas and even there pretty much the only job left to them was the financial sector, because that wasn't covered by guilds and on top of that Christians were forbidden from engaging in that as it was seen as usury and as a sin.
So to an extend the stereotypical image of Jews living in the ghettos of big European cities and engaging in "usury" is historically true - not because they are greedy, but because they weren't allowed to do anything else or be anywhere else.
So to Marx (read his "On the Jewish question") and the National Socialists who both revived these stereotypes, the bourgeoisie and the Jews were the same thing.
So you said Gulags are not like concentration camps because in Gulags "work will set you free", presumably without realizing that you just quoted the inscription at the gates of Auschwitz.
So the point of putting Jews into concentration camps was precisely to force them to stop being "evil exploiting capitalists" and instead teach them the value of "honest" labor. The extermination camps only came later towards the end of the war. And even Auschwitz was only ever part extermination camp and the other part continued to be a labor camp with only the ones deemed unfit for demanding physical labor being exterminated.
And that's why it had that motto, because just like in mainstream socialism, hard honest work (as opposed to "usury") was precisely seen as having a socializing effect on the "bourgeoisie".
I don't often disagree with James, but here I just wanna point out that the way he describes the socialist ideological concepts and the "transformative" aspects of the Gulags in the Soviet Union and the Laogai in China, is the EXACT same as the concept of the National socialist concentration camps. Though I understand why you think those would be different - because the National Socialists actually had 2 types of camps. The Konzentrationslager (KZ) and the Vernichtungslager (VZ).
The latter were extermination camps, which is what we think of nowadays when we think of concentration camps, but actually those types of camps were precisely NOT called concentration camps. The actual concentration camps had the exact same purpose as the Gulags.
The term bourgeoisie literally means city dweller and was historically and stereotypically identified with the Jews. Because in Europe Jews were historically forbidden from owning farms and from entering professional guilds. So they typically lived in the cities because they were banned from the type of jobs you would find in rural areas and even there pretty much the only job left to them was the financial sector, because that wasn't covered by guilds and on top of that Christians were forbidden from engaging in that as it was seen as usury and as a sin.
So to an extend the stereotypical image of Jews living in the ghettos of big European cities and engaging in "usury" is historically true - not because they are greedy, but because they weren't allowed to do anything else or be anywhere else.
So to Marx (read his "On the Jewish question") and the National Socialists who both revived these stereotypes, the bourgeoisie and the Jews were the same thing.
So you said Gulags are not like concentration camps because in Gulags "work will set you free", presumably without realizing that you just quoted the inscription at the gates of Auschwitz.
So the point of putting Jews into concentration camps was precisely to force them to stop being "evil exploiting capitalists" and instead teach them the value of "honest" labor. The extermination camps only came later towards the end of the war. And even Auschwitz was only ever part extermination camp and the other part continued to be a labor camp with only the ones deemed unfit for demanding physical labor being exterminated.
And that's why it had that motto, because just like in mainstream socialism, hard honest work (as opposed to "usury") was precisely seen as having a socializing effect on the "bourgeoisie".