Hey Chapos, I was watching my 101 billionth tank video on YouTube when I was confronted by a thought - I'm rabidly anti-war (except class war, of course) and yet find myself uncontrollably attracted to the implements of war. Any studies that delve into the rationale behind these impulses?
Communists do not fight for personal military power (they must in no circumstances do that, and let no one ever again follow the example of Chang Kuo-tao), but they must fight for military power for the Party, for military power for the people. As a national war of resistance is going on, we must also fight for military power for the nation. Where there is naivete on the question of military power, nothing whatsoever can be achieved. It is very difficult for the labouring people, who have been deceived and intimidated by the reactionary ruling classes for thousands of years, to awaken to the importance of having guns in their own hands. Now that Japanese imperialist oppression and the nation-wide resistance to it have pushed our labouring people into the arena of war, Communists should prove themselves the most politically conscious leaders in this war. Every Communist must grasp the truth, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party. Yet, having guns, we can create Party organizations, as witness the powerful Party organizations which the Eighth Route Army has created in northern China. We can also create cadres, create schools, create culture, create mass movements. Everything in Yenan has been created by having guns. All things grow out of the barrel of a gun. According to the Marxist theory of the state, the army is the chief component of state power. Whoever wants to seize and retain state power must have a strong army. Some people ridicule us as advocates of the "omnipotence of war". Yes, we are advocates of the omnipotence of revolutionary war; that is good, not bad, it is Marxist. The guns of the Russian Communist Party created socialism. We shall create a democratic republic. Experience in the class struggle in the era of imperialism teaches us that it is only by the power of the gun that the working class and the labouring masses can defeat the armed bourgeoisie and landlords; in this sense we may say that only with guns can the whole world be transformed. We are advocates of the abolition of war, we do not want war; but war can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to take up the gun.
—Mao Zedong, Selected Works Vol. II, pp. 224-225
Yeah most MLMs I've read advocate familiarisation with firearms but only as a necessary evil. My (again, rather irrational) fear is enjoying the aesthetics of violence in and of itself and ending up like Beria or something.
to me your fear is a good sign that you have a conscience. unless you are having intrusive fantasies about hurting people I think you're probably okay
Why is it fun to blow stuff up? To drive fast? To gamble and take risks?
Dopamine hits. Could be learned or hard wired into our DNA after the first hairy ape made an axe out of a rock.
I'm the same way. I try not to play any online FPS because they'll just suck me in like crazy. The idea of killing another person is heinous, but the digital version smashes my brain's dopamine button.
I was thinking along those lines as well. I too find myself sucked into games with an overwhelming amount of violence in them. Could also be because of the volume of suggestive cartoons I watched as a kid -GI Joe and Swat Kats and what not.
I want to try and de-program myself from it somehow; focus my energies on more productive things but I'm not really sure how.
True, but I usually don't find myself salivating over, say, construction equipment or satellites. Used to Really enjoy cars but over time I realised that the attraction was probably something to do with how media all around associated cars with coolness.
then you fucked up man. I have frequently looked at giant construction loader equipment and thought about all the cool shit I could do with it. Man, I could level so much ground .
FWIW you're not alone, even beyond military tech I have a big interest in military history which is chud central, feels bad.
I absolutely love history and one of the reasons I was drawn to it initially was because it's chock-full of battles and hero narratives. Although I'm still interested in history, these days I swear by materialist readings.
I'm helped by the fact that my country's post-colonial historians were primarily Marxists. Although their work is being systematically undermined by right-wingers.
Power. Power is hot. You've been shaped by a culture revering destructive power as ultimate power. Military power is now hot for you.
Like I mentioned somewhere else, it's probably all them GI Joe cartoons I consumed as an impressionable kid. The brain worms are buried too deep
I like reading/watching videos about Chinese/Russian military hardware because I imagine the American jingoists malding at the concept of other countries being able to put up a fight.
you might like this documentary from Al Jazeera about IDF tanks getting absolutely owned, here's part 1:
Oh yeah, that was absolutely hilarious! Love me a good underdog narrative.
Everyone wants to escape our crumbling society; obsession with powerful machines is one manifestation of this. Try reading Caudwell’s amazing essay on TE Lawrence for more information.
Read the essay. Pretty enlightening, ngl. Similar to works pointing out the vacuosness of the 'Great Man' readings of history.
This essay about him is pretty amazingly deep and I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface: https://monthlyreview.org/2016/11/01/revolutionary-biology/
even if youre anti war you still need to defend yourself. also engineering is cool
Once again synthesis is the answer. You know the power loader from aliens? Fuckin, synthesis
