The left puts far too much emphasis on reading the original works of long-dead thinkers who lived in circumstances far removed from anything we have today. We're not going to build a mass movement around 150-year-old books originally published in German. We should use the ideas from those books, but 90% of the emphasis should be on how those ideas apply to the problems of today, not on close readings of the original works.
You can learn physics without reading a page of Newton's original works, and you should be able to learn socialism without reading a page of Marx. We should be repackaging leftist ideas to directly address what people care about here and now -- that's what Lenin, Mao, and other revolutionaries did.
The problem with this is that, unlike physics books, any books written to modernize for example Marx's works are heavily based on interpretations of his works. It's not a matter of simple equations, those works have to be interpreted to be modernized, and historically, his works have multiple conflicting interpretations. Of course, not everyone needs to read Capital, but a lot more people inside the movements should read it than currently have.
To me, it seems absurd to suggest the left focuses too much on reading old books, when it feels like only a small minority of leftists could explain even simple concepts like use and exchange value.
How does reading theory vs watching video essays or David Harvey lectures, solve the interpretation problem? If more people read the book directly, would there be fewer interpretations? I’m just not following the argument here.
90% of the emphasis should be on how those ideas apply to the problems of today
I see this argument brought up a lot but nobody has brought up how Marx or Lenin's analyses have actually fallen out of date or how labor relations have changed since then.
this, i think its all still remarkably cogent today. Some of the stuff is honestly prescient, it makes even more sense in todays context. I cant quote it directly, but I think Marx even wrote about the rise of branding well before it happened.
The left puts far too much emphasis on reading the original works of long-dead thinkers who lived in circumstances far removed from anything we have today. We're not going to build a mass movement around 150-year-old books originally published in German. We should use the ideas from those books, but 90% of the emphasis should be on how those ideas apply to the problems of today, not on close readings of the original works.
You can learn physics without reading a page of Newton's original works, and you should be able to learn socialism without reading a page of Marx. We should be repackaging leftist ideas to directly address what people care about here and now -- that's what Lenin, Mao, and other revolutionaries did.
The problem with this is that, unlike physics books, any books written to modernize for example Marx's works are heavily based on interpretations of his works. It's not a matter of simple equations, those works have to be interpreted to be modernized, and historically, his works have multiple conflicting interpretations. Of course, not everyone needs to read Capital, but a lot more people inside the movements should read it than currently have.
To me, it seems absurd to suggest the left focuses too much on reading old books, when it feels like only a small minority of leftists could explain even simple concepts like use and exchange value.
How does reading theory vs watching video essays or David Harvey lectures, solve the interpretation problem? If more people read the book directly, would there be fewer interpretations? I’m just not following the argument here.
I see this argument brought up a lot but nobody has brought up how Marx or Lenin's analyses have actually fallen out of date or how labor relations have changed since then.
this, i think its all still remarkably cogent today. Some of the stuff is honestly prescient, it makes even more sense in todays context. I cant quote it directly, but I think Marx even wrote about the rise of branding well before it happened.