Literally just decades after decades of losing
Having big doomer vibes rn :deeper-sadness:
You: Wait, first — what's this communism even about?
Rhetoric: Failure. It's about failure.
You: Failure?
Rhetoric: Yes! Abject failure. Total, irreversible defeat on all fronts! Absolutely vanquished, beaten, curb-stomped and pissed on — until you came along! You will reverse the fortune of the workers of the world. You alone, against every living thing, against every human alive: eight hundred trillion reál in the hands of an impossibly well organized ruling class; towering city blocks of bank-men who have the ears of prime ministers; million-headed armies of nations and the love of your own mother! You — against the atom, the charm and the spin. Where the whole world failed — matter failed to bend to human will; human will failed to get out of bed and tie its laces — you alone, single-handedly, will rebuild the dreams of the working class. You are The Last Communist. Now get to work, comrade.
You: It's too tiring. I don't have it in me. I'm beat down and broken.
Rhetoric: Very well. I guess no one will build Communism then. Tell the working man it's over. Unless anyone has... objections?
Logic: No objections. It's mathematically impossible to achieve a classless society. Everyone knows this.
Savoir Faire: Let not failure ensnare you any further, beautiful pixie girl! Be an acrobat! A prancing faerie queen!
Electrochemistry: Did someone mention cocaine? Are we doing cocaine? No? I'm sure I heard someone say Cocainimism...
Rhetoric: Anyone? Anyone else? There's no one?
Volition: There's one.
You: What should I do?
Volition: You should build Communism — precisely because it's impossible.
You: (Roll up your sleeves and start building Communism.)
Can't wait till the full voiceover update. I had a hard time getting into it because it was so good but I get a jarring disconnect reading when there's such great recorded dialogue also present.
we lost in the country we needed to win most and we won in the country that was least prepared to lead
Go ahead reactionary, roll back our revolution. You can't unshit your traditions.
Chin up with any luck human civilization will last for several more decades for us to continue to lose in.
Ole Kierky boy divided people into three stages of development.
First you have the 'slaves' of the aesthetic realm; these are the people a leftist would describe as steeped in the ideology of capitalist realism and just basically take things at face value for what they.
Beyond that you have the 'knights of infinite resignation', these are the people that realize that things could and should be different, but are resigned to the fact that they will not be owing to the seeming impossibility of achieving such change.
Finally, you have the 'knights of faith', those who realize the world can and should be different, and assert axiomatically through faith that it will be different. No matter how seemingly impossible it is to achieve, no matter how much the world around them tries to tell them otherwise.
Most people live dejectedly in worldly sorrow and joy; they are the ones who sit along the wall and do not join in the dance. The knights of infinit[e resignation] are dancers and possess elevation. They make the movements upward, and fall down again; and this too is no mean pastime, nor ungraceful to behold. But whenever they fall down they are not able at once to assume the posture, they vacillate an instant, and this vacillation shows that after all they are strangers in the world. This is more or less strikingly evident in proportion to the art they possess, but even the most artistic knights cannot altogether conceal this vacillation. One need not look at them when they are up in the air, but only the instant they touch or have touched the ground–then one recognizes them. But to be able to fall down in such a way that the same second it looks as if one were standing and walking, to transform the leap of life into a walk, absolutely to express the sublime in the pedestrian–that only the knight of faith can do–and this is the one and only prodigy.
Ole Kierky boy has you covered.
Kierkegaard's Silentio contrasts the knight of faith with the other two, knight of infinite resignation and the aesthetic realm's "slaves." Kierkegaard uses the story of a princess and a man who is madly in love with her, but circumstances are that the man will never be able to realize this love in this world. A person who is in the aesthetic stage would abandon this love, crying out for example, "Such a love is foolishness. The rich brewer's widow is a match fully as good and respectable." A person who is in the ethical stage would not give up on this love, but would be resigned to the fact that they will never be together in this world. The knight of infinite resignation may or may not believe that they may be together in another life or in spirit, but what's important is that the knight of infinite resignation gives up on their being together in this world; in this life.
The knight of faith feels what the knight of infinite resignation feels, but with exception that the knight of faith believes that in this world; in this life, they will be together. The knight of faith would say "I believe nevertheless that I shall get her, in virtue, that is, of the absurd, in virtue of the fact that with God all things are possible." This double movement is paradoxical because on the one hand it is humanly impossible that they would be together, but on the other hand the knight of faith is willing to believe that they will be together through divine possibility.
The knight of faith does exactly the same as the other knight did, but he makes one more movement, for he says: Nevertheless I have faith that I will get her—that is, by virtue of the absurd, by virtue of the fact that for God all things are possible. The knight of faith can, by virtue of the absurd, get what he desires totally and completely. However, Silentio also comments that "that is over and beyond human powers, that is a marvel."
Time for a cat story:
Me and my wife have two cats, one male and one female, not related to each other. Before castrating both we let them have a litter of kittens (6 of them), which we subsequently donated to good homes.
Now, the mother is a very frightful cat (I think she was never used enough to humans before being weaned) - even knowing us and liking us, she might run away if we make too forceful movements suddenly, for example. So between this and the horrors stories I read online - like cats eating their offspring - I was pretty worried when she got pregnant.
And then one day I fell asleep and I woke up to cries of newborn kittens - she had had them in the wardrobe on top of my wife's folded dresses (RIP those dresses) instead of the small space I had prepared for her. And when I opened the door, she immediately started to purr like crazy seeing me, made a cat smile (they close their eyes briefly looking at you) and was completely trustful with me handling the kittens. That memory honestly warms my heart - I always feared she was completely frightful of us/humans in general but her reacting like that was incredibly comforting that she loved and trusted us, just in her own way.
One of the kittens also woke me up one night a few weeks later by biting my big toe deeply. Guess she wanted to check I was dead to see if eating me was OK.
Thanks for the answer. Also, I'm just realizing now that I didn't post my cat story in the megathread as I intended (I was very high when posting it, which is likely why), but in a random thread instead.
The thread needed some levity, so I don't think anyone minded. :heart-sickle:
- China is literally mining the moon for a rare element called Helium 3 that "could solve humanitys energy crisis for the next 10,000 year" utilising fusion technology (Professor Ouyang Ziyuan, the chief scientist of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2716417/Could-moon-fuel-Earth-10-000-years-China-says-mining-helium-satellite-help-solve-worlds-energy-crisis.html
- USA, the "head quarters of reactionaries worldwide", is literally falling to pieces in front of our eyes
Things have never been better.
I don't know how people can be doomers. The situation is excellent.
I watched a DPRK film Myself In The Distant Future recently. Set in 1997 (during the Arduous March which was a famine in DPRK due to the Soviet Union collapsing. Soviet Union supplied DPRK with oil which is needed for an advanced, mechanised agriculture. Cuba went through similar problems. And neither could obtain oil on the international market due to US blockade. Overnight due to no oil their food security collapsed without the ability to power factories/tractors and farms with oil).
And the plot follows a guy that is being a layabout his whole life and after a brief period of courting with a hard working woman who is in the shock brigades (kind of like labour brigades). And having a realisation he wants to achieve something for his country rather than be a layabout he begins working night and day on creating a design converting tractors to running on petrol to running on wood and coal.
Finally he gets the tractor over the hill using this design with the implication being that now DPRK can return to mechanised agriculture despite not having a huge fraternal brother like Soviet Union and despite being blockaded by USA.
And one of the comrades says "there's nothing impossible for the man who loves future."
You should go read Foundations of Leninism this will straighten your back.
Even if you concluded that China is "capitalist and has no interest in socialism" it's a win either way
China doesn't care what ideology your country or whos in charge and they don't interfere in the internal politics of countries at all.
They just want to do business.
Even this is a huge step up from the brain wormed Americans/Europeans that believe they have to export every cultural/economic facet like the crusades and use every arm of their tentacles to do this against weaker nations (ignoring the fact China hosts Communist Parties from all over the world to help build them up)
After losing some cash on the GME craziness, I pretty much immediately turned around and set up recurring investments into Chinese green energy funds. I had a whole list of reasons why I thought this was a good move, but the truth is that my dad kept trying to convince me that capitalism can be a force of good if you invest in companies you believe in and I thought this would be a funny way to shut him up the next time we grab lunch.
Anyway, I agree with everything you're saying here. Less imperialism is always a victory in my book.
China is literally mining the moon for a rare element called Helium 3 that “could solve humanitys energy crisis for the next 10,000 year” utilising fusion technology (Professor Ouyang Ziyuan, the chief scientist of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program)
I am very skeptical any of that will make any difference.
Climate change is the only threat that matters and nothing will be done until it is too late. The best countries like China can do is mitigation and on that area they'll fare better for some time. The problem is there is no mitigating 4 degrees warming.
That [insert miracle technology here] could "save the world's energy problems" is hopium in general because IMO it assumes that the problem with capitalism is that we don't already have clean and renewable energy sources that could save the planet. The "energy crisis" isn't an energy crisis it is a fundamental contradiction of capitalism i.e damage to society and the environment doesn't matter only profits.
Think of it like this, the more time we waste the more drastic measures will be needed. At some point the measures will have to be so drastic(e.g ban all fossil fuel usage) that it guarantees these necessary drastic actions wont happen. Unless someone snaps their finger and makes everyone agree on climate change action tomorrow there is little hope in waiting for the next magical solution.
I'm very, very familiar with the collapse community and how they view the world and if I'm totally honest if their ideology resonated with me at all I'd just go blow my brains out (like so many collapse people do)
It's a very bleak, hand wringing ideology that offers nothing to anyone so I'll just say I disagree. On the eve of the Russian revolution (1913-1917) there was a foreboding sense of doom amongst the middle classes. All poetry took on a bleak tone, artists became absolutely nihilistic and hedonistic and all sorts of end of the world scenarios were propagated amongst the middle classes because they understood Tsarism was dying but didn't realise something else was being born.
In the 80s it was the spectre of nuclear war as USSR died
Doomerism in US is just another manifestation of this inability to cope with the collapse of US empire.
Which is why (US)doomers don't believe anything can be done to change humanitys course
Honestly if I was born in the US I'd probably - not taking into account the brainwashing that I'd have endured though - have emigrated as soon as I reached majority, just based on the healthcare situation alone (though not before taking on a large school loan to never repay it). As a French dude, it's insane what you guys will tolerate - though it also makes sense, organizing is hard and your freaky culture of rugged individualism permeates everything.
These days getting the fuck out makes even more sense - it's not hard to see the writing on the wall: the US are headed for a major collapse.
With that being said, the US is also one of the most expensive countries in the world when it comes to renouncing US citizenship, so between that and the cost of emigrating in general "getting the fuck out" is actually pretty hard.
$2,350. This charge is news to me
And if you don't pay it/actually renounce the citizenship for a new one, you still have to report to the IRS; and they can still make you pay some taxes. All the banks are in on it, too, at least in EU countries, through international treaties (they call that bullshit "Mutual Collection Assistance Request Agreements"). I'm French and my own bank, despite me having nothing to do with the US, reminds me regularly with a popup that if I'm a US citizen (I'm not, thank god), I need to submit forms with the IRS. And they will comply with the US IRS if they ask for a money seizure on your accounts, due to the aforementioned treaties.
I'm trying to think of the amount of money it would take to convince me to move to the USA and it's somewhere between "Own Space Program" and "Singlehandedly finance the revolution"
China's still kicking ass, and has 1/5th of the world's population
High functioning sociopath here: Its just as bad but you have fewer options for relief or comfort.
Edit: Unless, as always, you are lucky enough to be born into a favorable class position.
That's fair. And I sincerely apologize for any ableism (edit: and classism. I fuckin suck tonight.)
I guess I was thinking for me, I was lucky enough to be born into wealth and privilege, so life probably would be better for me if I didn't have empathy for other people. But yeah, if your personal circumstances suck, they're still gonna suck, sociopath or not.
No worries, i used to say something very similar except about "Stupid" people.
Where I’m at right now is I need to get involved locally but my DSA is just 6 libs and 6 cops wasting each other’s time
Well you see it as losing, but so much of human progress has come from "leftist agitation". Every luxury we enjoy now is the result of it. Have hope, we need revolutionary optimism!
If you were a Liberal in 1849, you probably felt the same way. Change happens, even if we probably won't be alive to see it.
My friend lives in france and Macron is being full fash :deeper-sadness:
the cum on my waffles won't fill the hole in my soul :deeper-sadness:
Honestly, being a person sucks. Nobody ever wins except the same handful of people, forever.
Just downloaded the PDF! I know nothing about this other than the quote you just shared so I'm going in blind.
The liberatory aspects of The Absurd require its acceptance.
