version
Well-known member
They're "communism is inevitable"-types then?Nothing
Do we really want out?
I think @version might enjoy Monsieur Duponts "Nihilist Communism". It basically argues that being an active communist is generally a complete waste of time and that holding revolutionary ideas excludes you from being a member of the proletariat.
Nihilist communism - Monsieur Dupont
A critique of optimism - the religious dogma that states there will be an ultimate triumph of good over evil - in the far left.libcom.org
Great text, much less wrong than kpunk, but still wrong.
version
Well-known member
The main hurdle seems to be getting people to care about people they don't know personally and have no direct contact with and that seems more difficult than ever due to globalisation.
john eden
male pale and stale
Yes exactly. Or rather they are a bit deist about it - it either will happen or not but this will depend on the global working class and there is fuck all any individual of communist sect can do about it.
Actually globalisation makes that easier. It's just that the repressive arm of the state and its left wing collaborators are stronger than ever.
The way the leftists have rationalised lockdownism as a 0 covid absolute is utterly s shameful, for instance. The left is a barier to revolution. This is why I attack goldsmiths boy so vigorously, because he is the enemy who has learnt the lessons of honey-tongued diplomacy.
version
Well-known member
Why did they write the book? They just get fed up of the other communists?
version
Well-known member
What's the distinction?
john eden
male pale and stale
It's a paradox because we are more linked with and dependent on other people around the world than ever before - making those links visible is one thing that needs to happen. And the potential is there because of global communication speeding up... people do see things like the Suez canal blockage and understand it a bit I think...
Monsieur Dupont index a real problem, that Srnicek and Williams don't. That's why their constructive errors are infinitely more valuable.
john eden
male pale and stale
Well I think the feeling was mutual from what I heard. I think it was the culmination of some unsatisfactory conversations with anarchists and communists they were working with.
version
Well-known member
It's not as though a lot of people have the means and resources to really focus on anything beyond their immediate environment though. Everything seems too big and complex and distant. You get the odd thing like the response to women in Afghanistan, but it moves with the news cycle.
I'm not trying to be a downer and just rubbish everything, for the record. Just chewing on this stuff a bit. It's a wall I run into over and over.
version
Well-known member
I suppose you could pull the "What do I do with this?" card on anything, be it novels, films or whatever else, but I think there's an added pressure when it comes to something like theory because of what I was saying earlier about it positioning itself outside entertainment. It's, for want of a better word, serious and deals with "real issues". Not that novels and films can't do that too, but you know what I mean. It can feel a bit like reading a guide or instruction manual without the accompanying materials to put the instructions into practice.
Sure, but by that logic noone should read physics books unless they work in a lab. Aim your ire at Hawking!
version
Well-known member
Well, yeah. I'm not saying nobody should read the stuff though, just that it seems to amount to little more than reading for pleasure and interest and that's a bit more uncomfortable when it comes to politics. It can feel a bit like a more tasteful version of those guys who sit on Reddit studying drill-related murders in Chicago or Mexican drug cartels.
I had a similar discussion with someone who was heavily into conspiracy theories and they couldn't really come up with a response as to what the point of looking into all the stuff was beyond entertaining themselves.
Don't see why it should be uncomfortable. That's your own judgment. I don't find politics itself pleasurable (inane and boredom inducing more like) but reading about history certainly can be. Also what's wrong with the redditters who study drill murders and Mexican drug cartels?
use libgen, problem solved.
version
Well-known member
It's not just the act of buying the stuff. It's also that it doesn't really have any purchase on me. I'll pick up a book on theory or politics like I will a detective novel. It's just something interesting to read, but it feels as though it should be more than that. I don't spend my time in a permanent state of anxiety over it and usually just get on with reading whatever I'm reading, but it crosses my mind from time to time.