Many folks have written to ask what is going on with my “Law of Value” Youtube series. I have been very busy and preoccupied with other priorities so I apologize for not responding to all of the various inquiries I have received.
I have been dissatisfied with the theoretical quality of the series for some time now. When I began the project I did not have a strong commitment to theoretical clarity. I thought that conveying ideas in generality was sufficient, even if this papered over theoretical differences between interpretations of Marx. However, over the years I became more and more aware of how important these theoretical differences are and also of what a disservice it can be to present Marx’s ideas in overly general or simplistic terms. Because Marx’s ideas have particularly been the target of misinterpretation and misrepresentation, it is easy to fall into the trap of repeating and perpetuating these erroneous ideas if one is not careful.
I am always glad to hear from people who write to say that watching those videos encouraged them to read Capital. But there are a lot of online resources for people reading capital nowadays and if I was to contribute to that effort I would want to do a much better job than my Law of Value series did. In the future, if time allows, I may try to revive the project, but for now I think it is safer for the videos to stay dormant.
I continue to put out a bi-weekly podcast “Radio Free Humanity: The Marxist-Humanist Podcast” which I co-host with Andrew Kliman. We cover Marx, philosophy, politics and economics. I encourage folks to listen, write in, and engage with that content. There are a lot of great episodes covering a wide range of topic.