Today's Sermon: Marx, Grund. D. i.

As we read in the Grundrisse,

"It is not, then, simply the exchange of objectified labor for labor -- which appears, from this standpoint, as two different aspects, as use values in different forms, the one objective, the other subjective -- which constitutes capital and hence wage labor, but rather, the exchange of objectified labor as living value, as self-sufficient value, for living labor as its use value, as use value not for a specific, particular use of composition, but as use value for value."

And so LO! we see here, my bretheren and sisteren, the HIGH and MIGHTY importance placed by the lowly upon the HIGHEST form of capital, of objectified labor, yea, not in its form as value but as use value FOR value, for, as it is written, "Let he who is lowly selleth his soul for bread; but let he who is mighty selleth his soul for something else" (Crap. 21.12), for we see, o my fellow laborers, that it is not our LABOR that is of value, nay, but VALUE which comes to constitute our labor, for it is written, "Let he who toileth in the field be paid one drachma per day, but let he who toileth in the very bowels of the capitalist enterprise itself be paid two drachmas per day, which is more than one but less than three" (Lab. 23.6), for YEA there came upon that man toiling in the field that day a great storm so that he could not leave his hut, he could not toil in his field, he could not gather a bushel to pay the taxman, as it sayeth in the book, "Let him pay the taxman the taxman's due, but let the taxman be ready to refund his write-offs" (Tax code civ. Sec 6. Par 4.), and so he was cast into the EVERLASTING FLAMES of debt, forever ridden with pox, boils, and bad credit, and YEA HIS USE VALUE DID DECREASE like fruit which falls from the too-heavy bough to drop rotten and unsalable on the dessicated ground, the dust of which does cover the sandals of the workers in the field alike with the great men of the city, though those men can get their sandals cleaned pretty cheaply, actually, FOR LABOR'S VALUE IS NOW LOST AS VALUE ITSELF, and can be retained by the laborer not, and can be garnered nowhere, lest it be in the Fields of the Lord of the Factory, yea, even as he toileth with his truss, attempting to suck in his ample girth, just as the man in the desert said to the lonely traveler, "Lo, thy way be rough and hard, and your feet will split upon the flinty stones of the desert, but yet thou hast one great thing with which ye travel: the blessing of the Almighty 401(k)" (Ret. Scam. 40.1[k]).

AND YEA that man did eventually RISE UP and STONE his fellow employees, for they would not partake of the fruits of freedom, and so they were abolished in the midst of their unhousel'd, unannell'd sins, full-blown upon them like the fly upon the corpse, the corpse of their great desires, as they lay in their own filth, unaware of the BLESSING laid upon them that day that they should not labor any more in the House of the Capitalist, but should labor FREE AND FULL OF USE VALUE in the fields of the Lord, Amen. And though they be dead, yet they have in them much use, and shall not heed the words of that great BOOK OF LIES, which sayeth, "He who perisheth shall not die, for his use shall live eternally in the output of his production" (Big Fat Lies. 1.1), for they shall know this LIE for what it is, and shall be granted instead for evermore the TRUE BLESSED UNION of labor and laborer, of creator and created, as it is said, "For the moneychangers were all out of cash as HE did kick their tables to the ground in fury, storming the mighty cash boxes and demanding refunds for what faulty products whatsoever" (What. 5.2).

And so, Comrades, thus do I conclude my sermon, and hope that its USE and VALUE and high meaning have not been lost on ears deaf to the cry for freedom, ears full of the noise of iPods, ears bleeding from the sores of wickedness and foolhardiness. The ears, I say, of CAPITALISTS!