...do people think that ML groups do it because they love violence or some shit? No, they obviously just recognize that it will be necessary to overthrow the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, sooner or later.
do people think that ML groups do it because they love violence
this is exactly what they believe.
And when its too late those people are dead. Jeez this passage is really poignant
They don't realize that the weapons are defensive at first
Do it, I finished reading it the other week, it's as haunting a read as any.
I was on a kick reading tons of theory, but this one made me have to take a break. I'm about 2/3rds of the way through and am to the point where every time I start reading it I can feel my heartbeat in my face and a ringing in my ears as I'm filled with rage at the US and their fascist allies.
You know you're reading some real shit when that happens. The Korean war book "This Monstrous War" By Wilfred G Burchett did the same thing for me. I'll be real with you, there ain't much that can make my stomach turn short of Dirlewanger levels of warcrimes, and theres parts in that book that made me put it down for weeks when it met those levels.
I've been reading Charles Stross's latest book (which features a democratic socialist alternate universe that is in competition with something like our USA and it's own enemies.) and I guessed the plot twist 200 pages early because I read Jakarta Method.
He's very good indeed, he is a Demsoc so there are occasional brainworms but his takes are mostly good and materialist.
The Merchant Princes is the prequel series to the one I mentioned, and is a deconstruction of both the "secret princess" and "Lets start the industrial revolution" genres of portal fantasy. There are nods to foundation, but more in the themes of economic development.
I adore his novel Glasshouse, about a living history project in a post singularity civ recovering from a war of literal identity theft.
And the Laundry novels, which start out Lovecraft-light (the premise is that computing is magic and if you do it too much you'll compute up a shoggoth) and end up Lovecraft-heavy.
It is a fantastic read and is a great insight into the true hidden cost of the Cold War and the tactics used by the U.S. to inflict unbelievable human suffering. Should be on everyone’s short list.
