this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2024
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Read Marx, everyone, especially people that don't think they need to.
I would like to add David Graeber to that, and Kropotkin even. I don't mean to start a snowball effect that turns this into a huge list, but I feel like not enough people (especially the average person) know about them; especially Graeber who is a lot more modern.
Kropotkine was a sweetie.
Speaking of, a new translation of Capital I just dropped.
Is a free pdf available?
https://annas-archive.org/md5/abebaa739c328a6b12f7e42c1e5f25d0
Annies archive.
yeah...23 pages from 1848 surely have all the right answers for the problems of a globalized economy and a society which is so fed up that it is creating its own problems.
😂 The three volumes of Capital alone are about 2,000 pages, then there are Marx’s other works, and Engel’s works, and Lenin’s works, and onward. Hundreds of thousands of pages.
Marx is one of the most quoted thinkers ever, and this comes even from the newspapers which are hostile to him lol.
He's not talking about the communist manifesto, he's talking about Das Kapital. If you don't care to read it there are YouTube summaries such as this one . If you want to get straight into the meat of the subject you can start from chapter 4 and if you think it's all stupid take the 5-6 minutes to listen to chapter 7 so you'd at least know where socialists are coming from when they say capitalists are stealing your money.
23 pages? What are you referring to? Either way, what Marx analyzed is still relevant, even in his day overproduction led to crisis. Lenin took his analysis further once Monopoly Capitalism became the standard, but the same principles apply.
Marx manifest is 23 pages long. And i wouldn't take Lenin as someone to refer to...his "red terror" says enough. Of course one could say that doesn't mean he was wrong about other things, yeah but where does that leave us?
The Communist Manifesto isn't what I'm talking about. The CM is a worker pamphlet, not an explanation of Marxism. The Principles of Communism is a much better introductory work, and for Marx himself, Wage Labor and Capital as well as Value, Price and Profit are excellent texts describing Capitalism. I would also add Socialism: Utopian and Scientific for an introduction to Historical Materialism, and the failures of Utopian Socialists like the Owenites.
Lenin is absolutely worth reading, he was the leader of the first genuine Marxist state, and his contributions to Marxist theory are critical. Specifically, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism furthers Marx's analysis into the modern era of Monopoly Capitalism, aka Imperialism, which Marx was only alive to see the very beginnings of before he passed away.
Do you mind explaining to me how monopoly capitalism is aka imperialism?
The best way is reading the text I linked over it, which includes proof, analysis, and far more information than I can put in a single comment.
However, the extreme shorthand, is that competition results in monopoly, and monopoly seeks new international sources of raw materials and labor that is cheaper, using predatory loans and exporting industrial Capital directly.
The US, for example, has huge influence over the IMF, and makes the bulk of its value by producing in the Global South and lobbying to keep wages low.
That sure is a lot of stuff to read and i bet its dry lecture. To be honest, i won't start looking into them, so thus far you have me. Maybe it's ignorant but Lenin, for me, goes in the same pot as Stalin and Mao and the baddest of them all from Austria. I don't know if there are good ideas in their writings/ methods/ ideologies...what i know is that these are people who abused their power. They ordered people killed or at least restrained who wouldn't comply to them...so i don't know if their works and deeds are a thing to build upon.
I not very educated on the matter but i'd think that "Post-growth" in capitalism maybe is a solution or at least a way to a solution?
Capitalism sucks, yeah. They steal from you, yeah. Thing is that this happens in every system as long as humans are involved. So maybe we as a hole have to go through somekind of capitalistic-cataclysm, which i don't want for me or my kids, but has to happen none the less to come up with something neither Marx & Co. or capitalists envisioned as of yet.
This is what states do, they are tools of repression. You've basically limited yourself to reading from a subset of anarchists and no one else with this statement alone.
It isn't, haha. Pretty easy to read!
Bold claims for someone who refuses to even look at the text, let alone read it. Additionally, equating the Communists to the Nazis is in fact Nazi Apologia.
Do you know that? You evidently don't read, so where do your ideas come from? Imagination?
What on Earth is "post-growth Capitalism?" Where did you pull that from, and why do you already think it capable of being a solution?
How, exactly, are people "stolen from" in Socialism? You don't know what you're talking about, but you sure do have strong opinions about it.
Honestly, if you've got the time and the capability I would recommend reading at least Capital 1, it's incredibly well written.
The insomnia is really getting to me, so you're getting it.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa fucking read what cowbee gave you.
Aaaaaaaaaaa. Maybe educate yourself, for example by reading, maybe what cowbee linked.