Comrades. Not everyone has a good org near them and for some it's even dangerous to organize. Preferably people join an org in which they can spread communist thoughts of course.
this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2023
47 points (98.0% liked)
Ask Lemmygrad
807 readers
84 users here now
A place to ask questions of Lemmygrad's best and brightest
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Some comrades also have disabilities.
yup
the above comment gets my infamous rodent seal of approval
Agitpropers, maybe?
Lemmygrad users
Haha yeah cries over draft of party programma I've been working on for months on end
Too recognisable. I've been writing a pamflette on why billionaires shouldn't exist for the past 5 months.
No wonder! It's going to be difficult to cram that into a pamphlet!
Yeah you're right. I might develop it into a manifesto of some sorts, possibly communist even.
O7
Depressed
me :(
Praxisn't
A very necessary but unproductive stage for early lefties to breach. Not sure what to call it
I think this is a great way to put it. As someone who is in this phase himself acknowledging the necessity of this stage while also acknowledging the necessity of moving forward makes me feel seen and motivates me to continue on my path of expanding my understanding of Marxism and getting involved.
It's a liminal stage, one I went through. Often, this is a plateau for petty bourgeoisie people who have accepted intellectually that proletarian revolution is morally correct and necessary, but who are unwilling to risk their position yet. A common justification is "I don't know enough to take action." (where does knowledge come from? social practice and lived experience.) or worse "The best thing I have to contribute is my intellectual/cultural labor." (divorced from organization and direct struggle, this labor can have no outlet.)
As Liv Agar describes smoking: we have the contradictory desires to 1) quit smoking because we know intellectually it is bad for us and 2) continue smoking because it feels good. Often this is reconciled by justifying each cigarette.
'Oh, I had a hard day at work and deserve a treat.' 'Oh, I am out dancing and you just can't dance without smoking.' 'Oh, I'm going to quit soon but I'm not ready yet and so its not really bad to have this one since its practically my last cigarette.'
Of course, what's really motivating this thinking is a chemical addiction to nicotine; the material conditions of your body are pushing you towards a decision and you are just rationalizing what you were going to do anyways.
Similarly, many posters and other armchair leftists are essentially motivated by their fear of losing their petty bourgeois positionality—which is to say their class interest—but are compelled to justify ~inaction to maintain psychological integrity.
Fundamentally, communism is Jewish and not Christian; it is about actions and not beliefs. It is good to have sympathies (even sympathies it is not safe or possible to act on, as @[email protected] and @[email protected] point out below) but ultimately to be a communist is to be engaged in the class struggle for the working class and the abolition of Capitalism. As Marx puts it, "The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it."
Fundamentally, communism is Jewish and not Christian; it is about actions and not beliefs.
Can you please elaborate on this?
I'm not GP, but:
The idea is that faith is a practice rather than upholding a doctrine, and even that you're a member of the religion if you do the things ('keep the faith') regardless of what you believe.
I think the analogy makes sense, as Christianity placed a new emphasis on belief, which displaced on the one hand membership via kinship and also a whole host of religious practices/rules by declaring them obsolete or void or optional.
There are some major Christian thinkers who retained a partially action-centered notion of belief (Pascal, for instance) and there are some sects that give some primacy to behavior (see various doctrines of 'sinlessness', which take very seriously the imperative to 'go and sin no more'). But I think the analogy still basically makes sense.
I think one could argue that communist internationalism has more in common with Christian universalism than the ethnocentrism of Judaism, but I guess one could draw an analogy between a vanguard and a 'chosen people' (though I wouldn't!).
Imo these religious analogies aren't central to socialism but they are kinda interesting and a useful way to quickly allude to or illustrate a point for those who have some knowledge of comparative religions/history of Christianity.
I'm a bit curious about what analogies people culturally grounded in other religious traditions would make! Maybe we'll get lucky and a comrade with knowledge of some other faith traditions will chime in.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Often, this is a plateau for petty bourgeoisie people who have accepted intellectually that proletarian revolution is morally correct and necessary, but who are unwilling to risk their position yet.
Literally me. I have a lot to lose if I start doing praxis, and none of those things are chains.
load more comments
(1 replies)
literally me, for now
Same, although I have considered joining an org
Been here for a while as well. I'm starting to get involved in the Palestinie protests we have here and it honestly feels great. I'm volunteering and even writing a speech atm, which I'm planning on presenting at one of the upcoming protests. If I can do it so can you!
They're the support player in the team fight.
The Marxist cheerleaders?
Bards?
Hexbears
Armchair revolutionaries, left-coms, Bordiga, etc.
I don’t think “left-com” is right.
Sorry, my tendency leaked through lol
There's a quote from Huey Newton, "The first lesson a revolutionary must learn is that he is a doomed man." You're describing the stage/phase/step before the comrade has come to terms with that first lesson. And because it is the first step, we also see a big part of why the Western left is still learning to walk/baby steps.
That's perfect. It distilled all my feelings about it down to one sentence. They're going to kill us slowly if we don't do anything, and they might kill us quickly if we do. But we're dead either way. So fight back.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Armchair socialist
Armchair leftists.
Hexbear Users
The only irl praxis I do now is showing up at protests and partaking in the election campaign for my party. I feel like that isn't enough. :(
That's more than many armchair warriors do in their lifetime. Which party are you active for if you don't mind sharing?
load more comments
(4 replies)
Liberals
jk... ~~Taliban~~ Students
of course I know him, it's me!
idk, i was like this for a time but now im looking forward to officially join the communist party of my country and have gone to two protest and helped the communist party distribute flyers. Praxis can be a lot of things but most importantly it is to connect with fellow leftists and to organize either your workplace or the party.
Anything from going to a protest to putting up stickers of an organization is a 1000% more than anything any of these "armchair-leftists" will ever do, not because they cant, but because they are comfortable with their position in society (be it petit-bourgeois or labor aristocrat) and dont actually want a revolution to happen any time in the future.
I’m mostly trying to hide from everything so me I guess
academics.
content barbarians. posting through it
A fan
view more: next ›