Three’s a Crowd: My Dinner Party With Karl, Leon and Maynard

Posted on by Robin Varghese

3saCrowdSpeaking of capitalism, here's a one act play by Sam Bowles:

KARL
(warmly shaking Leon’s hand as he rises)

Leon, I am very sorry that we were not able to meet that summer in 1862 when we vacationed on the same lake in Switzerland. (Pause, Leon starts to say something but Karl continues) Perhaps I could have persuaded you that even your modest market socialist reforms could be implemented only by a revolutionary working class.

LEON

Had I known of your interest in mathematics, Karl – may I call you Karl? – I certainly would have looked you up.

MAYNARD
(suddenly interested)

You, Karl, interested in math?

LEON
(cutting in)

Why surely, Maynard, you know that Karl wrote extensive notes on the calculus and had told his friend Fred in 1873 that one could “infer mathematically … an important law of crises.”

MAYNARD

Sorry, Leon, but that was exactly ten years before I was born.

KARL
(quietly)

…and I died.

MAYNARD
(having not heard Karl’s comment)

But it does suggest a way that we can avoid the usual polemics when liberals, market socialists and revolutionaries perchance meet: we can restrict ourselves to mathematical statements. (Pauses) Let’s see if we can model the determination of the real wage and the level of employment. (Pauses again, then with detectable condescension). That's what socialists are interested in, right?