I used to say the same thing, now i just point people to Graeber or Zinn and let them radicalize on their own, if they identify as liberal and want reading recommendations. Debt: The First 5000 Years did more to push me leftward than State and Revolution. I assume this would be true for most people who aren't familiar with the context of the soviet revolution.
I'm ML and haven't read Kropotkin, but i think his idea of mutual aid as a part of evolution is really valuabe, since social darwinism has so poisoned lib thought especially in the US that most USians don't differentiate between Darwin's actual scientific theory and social Darwinism, to the point of believing "survival of the fittest" is a Darwin quote.
The book to go for then would be "Mutual Aid: A Factor in Human Evolution", right? As far as I know, Conquest is mainly a utopian socialist thought experiment about how production (using technology and figures of his time) could easily provide for everyone with much less work. I think it's valuable, just has different subject matter.
Yes. I'm not sectarian to anarchists in general, but conquest of bread is basically a fantasy novel taking itself seriously. It isnt grounded in any research. If you like the ideas presented in conquest of bread, that's fine, but it doesn't actually go into how those ideas can be achieved, outside of mostly "people will just spontaneously do it"
I don't think this is a bad thing though. Books like the bread book or The Dispossessed can help open people up to a leftist POV by showing them that there are very realistic alternatives to a capitalist system that, while utopian, would be so cool to live under. I feel like we should push people less towards "gloom and doom" books as their first book.
Listen to Teach Me Communism! It's the podcast that turned me into a leftist.
It's a nonbinary person and their brother basically doing a book club every week and explaining a different piece of socialist literature or socialist history. They start from square zero (the manifesto), work their way through stuff like The State and Revolution, and do a toooon of history. Also they've done the podcast for the past 3 years, do it entirely for free, and donate all of the money from their Patreon to a local Dallas mutual aid fund. I have such an unhealthy parasocial relationship with them but I'm an ML now and love them (though they do a lot of anarchist stuff too).
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific is the text that persuaded me, on a proximate level, into Marxism. It's very accessible so long as one is alright with the rambling historical anecdotes (which I generally quite enjoyed).
Read Capital
Respectfully, Capital is probably the absolute worst starting point for socialist theory.
Something like the Manifesto, The State and Revolution, or even Blackshirts and Reds would be much better starting points IMO
the starting point is being poor and angry all the time tbh
Totally with you on that. The Capital is a "colossal" starting point. And lot's and lot's of theory has been written since 1894.
On the other hand, Blackshirts and Reds is an awesome place to start.
is an eye opener for libs who want to read. At least in my experience.
Daddy Lenin too. In my case, I started with "Imperialism..." at the University and it was the kicker to my freefall into becoming a
.
Capital is a great starting point if the person is a big NERD
I used to say the same thing, now i just point people to Graeber or Zinn and let them radicalize on their own, if they identify as liberal and want reading recommendations. Debt: The First 5000 Years did more to push me leftward than State and Revolution. I assume this would be true for most people who aren't familiar with the context of the soviet revolution.
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Am I an anrchiddie if I say the conquest of bread is a good starting point?
I'm ML and haven't read Kropotkin, but i think his idea of mutual aid as a part of evolution is really valuabe, since social darwinism has so poisoned lib thought especially in the US that most USians don't differentiate between Darwin's actual scientific theory and social Darwinism, to the point of believing "survival of the fittest" is a Darwin quote.
The book to go for then would be "Mutual Aid: A Factor in Human Evolution", right? As far as I know, Conquest is mainly a utopian socialist thought experiment about how production (using technology and figures of his time) could easily provide for everyone with much less work. I think it's valuable, just has different subject matter.
Yeah that's the one i was thinking about. Thanks.
It honestly really irritates me how influential social darwinism has been in the US and i really wanted to rant about it lol
I fully support it, just wanted to comment on book topics. Social darwinism is insidious and it is difficult to imagine criticizing it too much.
Yes. I'm not sectarian to anarchists in general, but conquest of bread is basically a fantasy novel taking itself seriously. It isnt grounded in any research. If you like the ideas presented in conquest of bread, that's fine, but it doesn't actually go into how those ideas can be achieved, outside of mostly "people will just spontaneously do it"
I don't think this is a bad thing though. Books like the bread book or The Dispossessed can help open people up to a leftist POV by showing them that there are very realistic alternatives to a capitalist system that, while utopian, would be so cool to live under. I feel like we should push people less towards "gloom and doom" books as their first book.
I guess I would prefer books that laid out a realistic system that was better than laid out an unrealistic system that was better.
CoB is based on economic research, not magic, but absolutely is utopian in basically eliding the problem of "how would this ever be established?"
My partner double checked a bunch of the numbers he cited and he plays very loosey goosey with it.
The critique of the gotha program is very short and makes some good points about materialism.
Listen to Teach Me Communism! It's the podcast that turned me into a leftist.
It's a nonbinary person and their brother basically doing a book club every week and explaining a different piece of socialist literature or socialist history. They start from square zero (the manifesto), work their way through stuff like The State and Revolution, and do a toooon of history. Also they've done the podcast for the past 3 years, do it entirely for free, and donate all of the money from their Patreon to a local Dallas mutual aid fund. I have such an unhealthy parasocial relationship with them but I'm an ML now and love them (though they do a lot of anarchist stuff too).
Really wish more people would suggest them more!!
Or The Principles of Communism, by Engels.
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific is the text that persuaded me, on a proximate level, into Marxism. It's very accessible so long as one is alright with the rambling historical anecdotes (which I generally quite enjoyed).