Dialectic At Work: For Roses and Bread: On Marxism as a Theory of Overcoming Trauma 

I can listen to Richard Wolff all day!!!

Dr Wolff is by far and away the greatest living intellectual on the left today. Breadth and depth of knowledge and his style of presentation make him unparalleled.

I grew up in the ghettos of third world country. I had some pretty horrific loving conditions. it was thanks to some bad internet and a wikipedia page of Marx's social conflict theory that I was able to understand my trauma and injustices in a much deeper way. I thank Wolff for his crucial part in those formative years of mine

Prof Woolf is music to my ears ❤

Thank you Professor Wolf for sharing your story. Very inspirational. Stay well.

Fascinating story from a wonderful scholar. Kudos to the interviewer that asked nice prompt/questions and let him answer at his own pace.

Marxism definitely opened my eyes to some of the trauma too, and helped me make sense of it, absolutely. Thank you Prof 🙏 I wish your wife would make more videos, she's so insightful.

Super Interview! For those who have followed RW for years, this biographical, historical and intellectual narrative is Priceless! conversation

I just ordered Religion and the Rise of Capitalism by R.H. Tawney. It would be neat if Richard would suggest a reading list. Maybe he already has and I missed it. Great conversation. Thanks so much Democracy at Work. Cheers from Texas, USA.

I can relate in so many ways. Thank you.

This was a great interview, and as a professor whose university was the unfortunate site of a mass shooting in December, theory has been a way for me to understand the tragedy and the trauma that I and many others have suffered through. It's also been a catalyst for me to use my voice and speak up about the concerns that matter to me. Watching this was great and helped to reaffirm why I continue doing what I do. Thanks for the inspiration Dr. Wolff

Wow! I feel kindred in many ways listing to this. Thank you for producing this video.

Fantástico e impressionante!

Very personal accounts Dr Wolff, thanks for sharing

Excellent show I've never heard of Dialectic before; I happened to see Richard Wolfe and had to watch. Thank you both very much 💙💙👍👍💙💙

Like the show, always enjoy more in depth background about professor Wolff. Really fascinating information.

Thank you, Professor Richard Wolff, for listening to your biography of your education, your family history, and your dear immediate family for years. In addition to all the books you have written. Dr. Fraud, your wife, and your family for their extended service. In my childhood, my papa also had me reading at a very young age. He would ask not to speak of these things at my school or anywhere else. (Unfortunately, I was stubborn, and I had to learn the hard way. )Thank you for being the man you are to all of us.

What an interesting life Professor Wolff has led. As he gradually came to Marxism by his associations, I came to Cooperative Individualism by my study of Thomas Paine, Mortimer J. Adler, Henry George and along list of very thoughtful individuals. Professor Wolff spoke about the few professors to whom students were drawn magnetically. He might find it interesting to learn that an early professor at the Wharton School, Scott Nearing, though very popular, was dismissed by the university trustees because he campaigned against child labor and because he embraced the economic program put forward by Henry George.

It probably was the best talk I've listened to. Thank you both !!!

Thank you, Professor, for explaining how you thought as a child and never got over it.

Your father was a hero! I am in tears of gratitude!

Very entertaining!

Inspiring!!

Thoroughly enjoyed and took interest in Rick's indepth background. Professor Wolff is a good son and human being. Best mentor for Marx interpretation at this critical juncture.

I have admired Richard Wolff for a very long time, and have wanted to know more about his upbring. Thank you for this fantastic video. And thank you, Richard.

Great interview. Would love to hear which Marxists you recommend reading.

Book references: The alienation of modern man - Fritz Pappenheim Religion and the rise of capitalism - R.H. Tawney Thank you Professor!

I loved listening to you, Prof. Wolff. Thank you for this detailed and fascinating story of how you became yourself and for your deep horror and need to understand how human beings could possibly do such traumatic things to one another. The journey through your education was as inspiring as going back to college and remembering some of the truly great lectures in crowded auditoriums with people hanging from the rafters to listen. It's wonderful, isn't it, the joy of learning when it is so new and exciting and one has time for it. I'd love our country to provide opportunity and means for all our peoples of all ages to be inspired by education for a lifetime, should they wish to do so.

Good interview, but it would be great if Wolff and his wife did a piece focusing on Marxism as a theory of overcoming trauma

Very useful, getting more of the family story, understanding the role Wolff's father had played pre-WWII in his community, and how he strived to assure his son's education was as complete as possible. How TUTORING and real dialogue, the socratic method shapes an intellect -- and then, how teaching (in this case, an undergrad to high school students) helps solidify one's grasp. Then more tutoring as a graduate student, if short-lived. I would wish this level of involvement in education for just everyone. Nothing better than drawing out ideas from someone simply by using questions. It's really heartening work, and watching how inspired the learner becomes is SO satisfying. I appreciate how Wolff continually empahsizes Marx's role in economics is to connect the dots: connect human suffering -- AND human striving -- to behaviors, and then aggregate/social behaviors. Totally lacking in near all criticisms of Marx, as I suppose detractors don't grasp how much the non-charts-and-graphs actually matter. Wolff's weekly updates regularly pointing to how market movements CHANGE BEHAVIORS of individuals are important contributions to the continued unrest at how our current societies aren't working -- and how to create solutions that will drive societies forward, not backward -- or continuing to hover in a no-mans-land.

Even though I was not able to make out muchof the economic concepts, but the talk by Dr Wolff is extremely captivating

Thank you for sharing your experiences that shaped your parents.

Great interview! Nice to hear some of Prof Wolff's background.

Thank you. This was both absolutely fantastic and interesting.

Wonderful.

A fascinating life-story, relating Richard Wolff's early life, up through his first year of grad school, and including the backstory of his parents' experience fleeing Nazi Germany, and the trauma they experienced and handed on to him. Having attended Harvard at about the same time as he did, I'm interested in his account of the Cold War fear, and the resulting blinkered education that ignored Marxist analysis of history and society, and spread the ideology of capitalism that was inculcated in the teaching of Economics. We ranted and raved against Soviet mind-control, while we were subjected to equivalent fears and distortions as were those in the U.S.S.R. Wolff would say, and I would agree, that still today we have a weltanschauung distorted by Capitalist ideology, that prevents us from seeing a truer picture of the world around us. Those refugees storming our borders are doing so because of what American pro-capitalist foreign policy has done to their home countries.

Richarrd in Harvard cocktail party like his father Max in Paris Embassy cocktail parties. Love in the time of cholera!

Dear Shahram, thank you for this great interview with Prof. Wolff! Quick question: you referred to Prof. Wolff's book where he writes on empiricism, rationalist and overdetermination. What book is that? " Knowledge and Class"?

✌🏽

this was great

Great interview with Dr. Wolff. But Mr. Azhar seems sort of like a human bobble-head. Who am I to be critical? I'm a nerd myself. The guy may be a genius for all I know or don't know. Anyway, great interview with Dr.Wolff.

Oh, this is cool.

Muito interessante

Beste Grüße aus Germany

What do you think of Hagel and his philosophy? Question for Prof. Wolf

Richard had the same educational experience that I had studied History with Economics along with Philosophy that I received at A . Great minds think alike.

I came to the study of Marxism through the anthropologist, Stanley Diamond.

BASED

Rich irony-Dr Wolff attended Stanford on a Hoover Fellowship

English speakers, please tell me is it respectful to call Professor Wolff Rick?

mensch 🙌🏽❤

How does a Maxist economist, so carefully schooled in the intracacies of Marxism and German Philosophy, who knows so much about the concepts and practice of democracy (having lived in America when democracy was threatened,) all filtered through a deep knowledge of European history, how doe he end up advocating for Chinese Capitalism? Wolff advocates, he does not analyze very often. He advocates for China's economy that today only has the thinnest verbal veneer of Socialism under the strongman Nationalist, Xi. Professor Wolff has taken a hard right turn from the general understanding of Marxism and has nested in Authoritarianism with a dollop of Chinese Imperialism. Wolff not only correctly points out America's failings and Capitalism's inherently flawed practice of it, but he delights in America's destruction without offering a viable (and democratic) alternative to our stressed working class beyond pointing to the recent alliance of authoritarian Neofascists like Putin, Xi and Kim. Nothing good can come of such an alliance of thugs. Add a little theocracy and the nasty, new, worldwide, repressive political axis of power that is so terrifying to me is not just described by Professor Wolff but encouraged, praised and held up as an example of astonishing accomplishment. Is it helpful? He ignores repression, economic failures and a huge deviation from traditional Marxism. I cannot accept it. I certainly don't love Capitalism and it has obviously perverted the democratic process with its concentrated money and purchased power. But there is great value in Democracy and Socialism intertwined to produce a new way of organizing an economy with power in the capable hands of the people who do the daily work to make a society function. Capitalism has failed ordinary working people. State Socialism has not worked out well either. But Democracy in the hands of working people and Socialism together offer much hope. Undoubtedly the process of industrialization will be somewhat slower under a people driven society. No dear leader will tell workers what they must do or not say inorder to make progress at the fastest pace. But it might very well preserve our planet, provide enough but not excess for survival and hope for a future of clean air, clean water and unpolluted land for future generations to use and pass down. Professor Wolff makes excuses for China's Capitalist failures and does not criticise Chinese aggression in the South China Sea that does not belong to China far out into international waters. He excuses real estate speculation in China with the obvious falsehood that China overbuilt in advance of its current needs. What about those bankruptcies and banking problems caused by Capitalist speculators looking for a fast profit? What about an unprovoked land grab in Ukraine which voted for a governmentnot owing absolute allegiance to Russia? And what about China's threats on the high seas? Those aren't the only problems on the list of failures in undemocratic contries allied in a new authoritarianism. A little research reveals the problems that this recent right turn in world governance has revealed. I don't want this country to join the trend in November and I don't want to preserve Capitalism here either. I'm for forging something new and better for workers like me, based in Wolff's ideas of an economy where the means of production is settled directly in the hands of workers and where the values and goals benefit the masses, not a privileged few. I want my say through the voting process and the right to organize and redress grievances. I want to keep the Bill of Rights in our Constitution and expand it. That's a good beginning to a better way to live. Go back to fundamental Marxism and build with values of Socialism and Democracy leading to something better better than state Socislism. I'm not buying your Chinese and Russian propaganda. I'm not buying Capitalism at all either!

Shahram bhai kitne saal se punjabi ka ek lafz nhi foota apke muh se🤣