How to approach Marx's ideas

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1d410Arthur





  • #1
  • Posted: 04/20/2020 21:32
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I've read some of Marx's texts and the writing was so poor I always thought they were a bunch of gibberish people interpereted randomly but I got my social media classified and was promoted because of a contact who says there is actually information in his texts (at all ). i am obviously not allowed to discuss this on my social media as it is now classified, but I think the forum is an appropriate place to help me with my new job which I know will require understanding these poorly written gibberish manuals (that i only now understand has content as I was promoted unexpectedly and got classified). Does anyone know how I should approach these books. I am good at research but it is mostly developing electronic technology like 80s music so the poorly written papers are mathematical treatises.
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baystateoftheart
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  • #2
  • Posted: 04/20/2020 21:44
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Can you elaborate? What did you find to be gibberish about The Communist Manifesto? It's not super well-written, but I found it readable.

Also, when I first read it I was surprised by how moderate some of his policy proposals seemed - we have adopted many of them in the United States! I was expecting something far more radical.
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1d410Arthur





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  • Posted: 04/20/2020 21:54
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Thanks I will just read it again if you don't think it's gibberish I will get back. It's good to say which text I need to read. Right now I am just pleased I don't need the stimulus and if I get it I will repay a bunch of minor student debt I regard as trivial as I am confident I am very financially stable and this new classification will help
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RoundTheBend
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  • Posted: 06/16/2020 01:48
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I did a bit of research in college about some political/philosophical ideas and one of the things you gotta keep in mind is most of these ideas, as opposite as they may seem in regards to methodology/ideology, actually were all rooted in giving people more power and taking it from the monarchs as their end goals.

America was founded on this idea to free themselves from Monarchs - all men equal. Abraham Lincoln solidified it.

Marx had a different approach, but simply put, he wished the common worker could have more power over their "pursuit of happiness" if you will and believed if you made the "game fair" then more people would be happy. Basically Marxism in literary theory is mostly about class struggle, recognizing it (even in the least assuming circumstances), and then of course the concept is to do something about it.

As much as I dislike fascism, it's roots often garnered similar attention - give power to the people.

I don't know - maybe they all had the right intentions, but all of those systems became corrupt and I think most systems today still feel like the people lost the power/never had it. To what extent I suppose is in the eye of the beholder... well and facts/interpretation of facts/availability of facts and good educations to interpret them.

I took an East German literature class and it was quite eye opening. If you can get your hands on a copy of Nikolaikirche, it showed the pros and cons of East German living or what was real and not real about it. It's not always easy to know what's real or not real about the United States, to be honest. I mean the number one thing Americans like to tout when talking about communist countries is they had a terrible economy, yet East Germany touted the 10th greatest economy in the world in 1985, just years before the fall. For 1/4 of modern day Germany to tout that, is impressive (this was supposedly a British claim, something I have yet to find again, so maybe it's false). https://www.amazon.com/Nikolaikirche/dp/3861520044
Hmmm - maybe I should see if I can hunt this down, looks like they made a movie from it too: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113985/

The methodologies or ideologies were not the same, so please don't mistake what I'm stating. Just their end goals supposedly all started out the same.
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mickilennial
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  • #5
  • Posted: 06/16/2020 05:47
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RoundTheBend
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  • #6
  • Posted: 06/16/2020 18:28
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Gowi wrote:


Basically.

This is number one reason affluent folks should read Marx. And if that name is just bad juju from where you come from, maybe at least read an American's (Orwell) book called Animal Farm... and just don't be the donkey or jackass. I feel like a certain political party is filled with donkeys (in the Animal Farm sense) and they don't even have that as their mascot...
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manurock




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  • #7
  • Posted: 07/12/2020 12:56
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Nice analysis @Roundthebend.

America has used the fear of communism as the excuse to avoid properly addressing their inequality and social justice problems which appear all over again every time there is a crisis such as this pandemic or the 2008 financial breakout. Of course I think that communism isn't the best system at all, but their philosophy is interesting and we should learn from it.
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baystateoftheart
Neil Young as a butternut squash



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  • #8
  • Posted: 07/13/2020 01:24
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RoundTheBend wrote:
Basically.

This is number one reason affluent folks should read Marx. And if that name is just bad juju from where you come from, maybe at least read an American's (Orwell) book called Animal Farm... and just don't be the donkey or jackass. I feel like a certain political party is filled with donkeys (in the Animal Farm sense) and they don't even have that as their mascot...


Orwell was English. Otherwise, carry on.

I think it's terribly convenient that all of Marx's ideas get dismissed out of hand by so many people. It's unlikely he would have thought highly of Stalinism or Maoism, yet he gets the blame anyway. While I'm not a Marxist, I do think it's valuable to engage critically with his ideas.
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BARDAMU





  • #9
  • Posted: 08/29/2020 19:49
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RoundTheBend wrote:
Basically.

This is number one reason affluent folks should read Marx. And if that name is just bad juju from where you come from, maybe at least read an American's (Orwell) book called Animal Farm... and just don't be the donkey or jackass. I feel like a certain political party is filled with donkeys (in the Animal Farm sense) and they don't even have that as their mascot...


1. Orwell is English.
2. The donkey in Animal Farm is supposed to be the good guy, the pigs are the bad guys.
3. Animal Farm is an allegory criticizing Stalin and the USSR, it doesn't have anything to do with explaining Marxism.
4. Animal Farm is terrible.
5. Orwell is terrible.

If you're gonna talk out your ass you could at least Google it first.
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RoundTheBend
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  • #10
  • Posted: 08/30/2020 00:14
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BARDAMU wrote:
RoundTheBend wrote:
Basically.

This is number one reason affluent folks should read Marx. And if that name is just bad juju from where you come from, maybe at least read an American's (Orwell) book called Animal Farm... and just don't be the donkey or jackass. I feel like a certain political party is filled with donkeys (in the Animal Farm sense) and they don't even have that as their mascot...


1. Orwell is English.
2. The donkey in Animal Farm is supposed to be the good guy, the pigs are the bad guys.
3. Animal Farm is an allegory criticizing Stalin and the USSR, it doesn't have anything to do with explaining Marxism.
4. Animal Farm is terrible.
5. Orwell is terrible.

If you're gonna talk out your ass you could at least Google it first.


hahahahahahaha

ok.

Yes I mistook Orwell as an American.

But anyway I guess you missed the context of what I was talking about.

Also I actually fucking read the book, not just trusted google. It has been a bit though.

And what I meant by the donkey is he was rarely willing to stick his head out/do anything about the situation (IE not educate yourself, take action... sure you can simplify that to bad or good, but I didn't).

Also Orwell was a democratic socialist and the work is considered one of the great Marxist readings of (which you totally already knew of course, because you understand a Marxist reading actually isn't meaning literature written by Marx, rather in literary theory, Marxism deals with literature that deals with class struggles, regardless of economic system) the century.

But... yeah... I'm the dumb fuck. I forgot.
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