The Communist Manifesto? Is that a video game?

Leon Trotsky? What's his Twitter handle?

Antonio Gramsci? Did he invent Instagram?

  • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    11 months ago

    The average non-Marxist has heard of the Communist Manifesto and thinks that is the extent of the philosophical canon. The average Liberal has not even read any Liberal philosophy, like Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Paine, etc.

    • macabrett
      ·
      11 months ago

      The average non-marxist doesn't know that "Capital" and "The Communist Manifesto" are different things, much less that the latter is a pamphlet and not a book.

      • m0darn@lemmy.ca
        ·
        11 months ago

        100%

        I remember reading the communist manifesto in university twice because I was sure I must have missed something. (This was extra curricular, I was in engineering) Like it was fine, but it didn't really live up to my expectations of reframing history by analyzing it through the lens of class.

        I only recently figured out that it wasn't Capital. (It was before I read your post but probably within the last year, so ~15 years from when I read the manifesto).

        I haven't gotten around to reading Capital, would it work as an audio book?

        • KurtVonnegut [comrade/them]
          ·
          11 months ago

          I haven't gotten around to reading Capital, would it work as an audio book?

          Here you go:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUW6cjZgi7Y

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4Cpj_wXF88

          I would also recommend David Harvey's supplemental explanations of Capital, he is very down to earth:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5vu4MpYgUo&list=PLWvnUfModHP9Ci8M1g39l4AZgK6YLCXd0

          • M68040 [they/them]
            ·
            11 months ago

            Reminds me, I've been thinking about pivoting to audiobooks since I do delivery driving for a living. Wouldn't be able to focus totally on the material, but possibly more worthwhile as learning material than podcasts.

            I want to say Capital was serialized in magazines in France for similar reasons?

        • charlie
          ·
          11 months ago

          I've been working my way through using this reading by Professor David Harvey. In the beginning he mentions that he taught the work for a couple decades, and for a first go round with the work I really appreciate having someone experienced to hold my hand through it, lol.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5vu4MpYgUo&t=3331s

        • o_d [he/him]@lemmygrad.ml
          ·
          11 months ago

          I haven't gotten around to reading Capital, would it work as an audio book?

          It honestly reads a bit like a teacher giving a lecture so I imagine it would.

        • GarbageShoot [he/him]
          ·
          11 months ago

          Capital is pretty difficult, though if you're enthusiastic than go for it. I just thought I should include what I said to the OOP:

          Personally, I think the best introductory work for someone who doesn't have the patience for The Principles of Communism (and I don't have that patience myself) is Engels' Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, here as text and here as an excellent audiobook.

          It's personally my favorite audiobook (not that I listen to a ton), but that's because I think the reader's dry tone is charming and works well with the type of humor Engels occasionally employs.

    • GarbageShoot [he/him]
      ·
      11 months ago

      They are way more likely to have read Voltaire or even Montaigne than they are Montesquieu unless he substantially overlaps with their field of study, at least to the best of my memory. Swift is another.