this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
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Kim Stanley Robinson is an ML? After reading Ministry for the Future I assumed he was a socdem. I did not like that book. It's been a while since I read it, and from what I remember, it omitted a useful economic analysis and liberation struggle from confronting climate crisis which seemed totally idealistic to me.
I recall reading that he considered himself a Marxist, and he does appear to support revolutionary approach to social change in his books. While Ministry for the Future isn't perfect, it did some economic analysis showing that capitalism is fundamentally at odds with having a livable future. The whole thesis of the book is that capitalism needs to be abolished, and the book also doesn't shy away from saying that violence will be necessary to do so. It also talks positively about USSR saying that it had the right idea all along.
Fair enough, for some reason I really recall raging at that book being unrealistic in a "let's vote away climate crisis" kind of way, but I also don't remember details 😂. Thanks.
He's a socialist, but not a Marxist-Leninist. Not instinctively hating the USSR is good, but it doesn't make you an ML. 😛
That's fair, I do find his open support for revolutionary struggle refreshing though.