Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Heine and Capital
A great calm currently reigns here. Everything is quiet, as if
enveloped in snow on a winter night. Only a mysterious and
monotonous sound like spattering drops. It is the unearned
income of capital that falls into the cashboxes of the capitalists
nearly causing them to overflow. The continuous increase of
the wealth of the rich is distinctly hated. Occasionally this
muffled roar is mixed with a sob emitted in a low voice, the
sob of indigence. Sometimes a light metallic sound echoes
like that of a knife being sharpened.
—Heinrich Heine, September 17, 1842
Labels: capitalism, Heine
