The general population does not even see capitalism as a specific system, but rather "natural" like the birds or the trees i.e not anything to give a second thought about.

Leftists treat the military in the same way. Despite being aware that it has always acted as the primary tool of the ruling classes throughout history, too many leftists, even "revolutionary" ones, think of it as an institution that must necessarily exist.

This explains why there is no serious materialist or Marxist analysis of the military itself in academia. This is a mistake, in my opinion. No military = no ruling class. It's that simple. We should focus our ideological and practical efforts on forming a people's militia and taking real power(guns, tanks, planes etc) in our hands. That is true "revolutionary" action.

This is not me being blackpilled and I'm not a fed, I'm simply stating the truth. Any leftist political action that isnt arming and organising itself with the open intent of military action is useless. Thanks for listening to my FED talk.

  • weshallovercum [any]
    hexagon
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    There is nothing in your post that I don't know, but thanks for the patronizing drivel . My point is that leftist disinterest in the military and correlated lack of theory leads to ineffective action and grave errors.

    For example, leftists constantly talk about the exploitation of the ruling class without giving any material basis as to why the ruling class is able to exploit in the first place. Few leftists say "the capitalists controls the military and police which protect property rights through force, which allow the ruling class to exploit workers". Instead, leftists say "the capitalists exploit the workers by owning property and hence the product of labor". This second explanation is idealism, it doesnt explain the mechanism which makes people fail to see the connection and fail to see how they are being exploited.

    Similiarly we have seen leftists defending communist countries like the USSR, NK or China saying that they were not authoritarian because people could vote. This fails to see that the authoritarianism is actually due to the consolidation of their armies, from a genuine people's militia that overthrew the ruling class, into an exclusionary body that answered to the state rather than being democratically controlled. Thus, even though USSR, NK or China were "democracies" in the sense that people could vote, just like in capitalist countries, people had no real power because, like I keep repeating, power is actually a material thing that comes from owning weapons and controlling an organised force, i.e. the military. This is the true source of authoritarianism.

    It's also why anarchists are so dumb when they whine about "statism". A state in the sense of a body of civil servants without a military has no power at all. It is not the state that anarchists should fight against, it is the military.

    Perhaps I should mention that my statement about what people should do was a bit presumptious. I don't mean to set the program for the left, I just wanted to suggest that maybe some of us can move on from electoralism, or "community building" or running soup kitchens or "raising awareness" or "helping the working class" etc etc (all of which are good and worthwhile things in their own right), but to something more substantial. Something permanent, something that is legal(despite claims of adventurism), something that gives us true power. Just a suggestion.

    • REallyN [she/her,they/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Few leftists say “the capitalists controls the military and police which protect property rights through force

      wot

    • JuneFall [none/use name]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      There is nothing in your post that I don’t know, but thanks for the patronizing drivel

      I want to repeat my post on this point. I believe there are plenty of good seeds in what you write, though a lot of things I disagree with, though theoretical debates based on texts and references don't really strengthen us in my opinion at this place and with you as target audience.