Communism? Sure, Why Not?
Todd Hayen
I read Marx and Engels’ The Communist Manifesto when I was 17, and I got detention for it. Actually, I got the detention for reading it in class, and then got a lecture for being interested in its subversive un-American content by the assistant principal while I was in detention. The details are irrelevant. I didn’t read it because I was a Marx fan, I read it just because I knew it was subversive. I read Mein Kampf a few years later for the same reason. I didn’t become a fan of Hitler as a result, but I did learn a lot about him and National Socialism, and in High School after reading the Manifesto, I learned a bit about communism.
I remember being impressed with the famous quote, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” (a Marx quote but from a different writing). At the time I did not understand its implications. It sounded nice without digging too deep. It seems we are tricked by this idea of “sounding nice” when we first hear of something, like CBDCs, UBIs, or Digital IDs, “sounds pretty good, eh?” No one seems to look at the implications—we do of course, but most sheep do not.
Yeah, nice, steal from the rich and give to the poor. Everyone loved Robin Hood . . . he was one of the good guys. Everyone assumes that anyone with money got it by stealing from the poor! Sure, some do that, but probably not as common in a simple old-world capitalist country (not directly at least), and probably much more common in a communist one (robbing from the poor, robbing from everyone), and certainly the name of the game in the oncoming GloboCap economy (to borrow C.J. Hopkins’ term). “One day you’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy.” I’m sure about the first part of this sentence, and not so sure about the second part.
Not only does the concept “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” simply not work but any system based on such things is wide open to corruption. I won’t go into any detail as to why communism as Marx proposed is a whacked system, there are plenty of books out there on that subject. What I do want to comment on is why so many people don’t believe it is whacked. Show a liberal that Marx sentence and I will bet you they will say, “Sure, why not?” Yeah, sure they like the sound of it until the state comes along and starts shaving off their opulence and distributing it to the ones they think should get it instead of them, “according to their needs.”
First of all, no one (here in North America at least) is yet suffering deeply as we transition to totalitarianism with a communist bent. People think that the loss of freedoms is analogous to removing traffic laws. It isn’t. People say, “Well, I don’t have a problem being a law-abiding citizen, I don’t need to have the right ‘to do anything I want’.” That is a naive statement. The rights people lose under a communist-like system is a bit more harsh than that. It is important to note that what we are being led into is not the communism of Marx, Lenin, or Mao. It is a new kind. Exactly what, I am not sure, but it is different. A new system of “collectivization” may not, at least at first, carry any of the stereotypical “communism” oppressions that everyone thinks of when they think of communism. And yes, many people may be tolerant of it, again, at least for a while. Think of Orwell’s 1984, then compare that dismal state to Huxley’s Brave New World, or even Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. 1984 is an example of the “end-term” condition of an oppressed culture.
In 1984, the disease has deeply set in, and the parasite of communism/totalitarianism is about to destroy its host. Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 are examples of cultures still in the early stages of a structure that is sucking the soul out of people, but the host (the people) are not yet dead. What they all have in common, though, as well as what is in common with today’s dystopia—is a central control of the masses. This is now accomplished differently—cell phone obsession, media takeover, social media, the label of misinformation on anything contrary to the narrative. Sure, the old mainstays of propaganda and censoring of speech are still part of it all, but again, it all has a slightly different spin to it.
The goal of the parasite is to keep the host alive as long as possible in order to benefit from it. Certainly, in our case, the masses can be culled, and kept just sick enough that they are compliant and easily manipulated, but, as Schwab says, the intent is to keep what’s left of us happy . . . or so they hope, at least until they are very well ensconced in the “new” culture.
The style of communism that is upon us (and we do have to come up with a better word now that it no longer has the intention of making community) is designed to suck just enough out of us that we don’t know we are being depleted of life. The perpetrators know nothing of soul; therefore, they care nothing of it. We will lose our soul quicker than losing our bodies as a result of this slow drain. We will become depressed, despondent, un-empathic, un-loving, and anxious, as well as a litany of other mental and emotional maladies. Although our masters will intend to keep our body just on the edge of functioning (unless we are one of the unfortunate—or fortunate?—to be culled) in order to return to them what they desire, we will sooner than later collapse internally. The soul will starve. We are already seeing this, at least we are, the people most affected by this Skeksis style of killing are not conscious of the cause of their despair—and this realization is only just now creeping up on them.
It will be a long time before people notice what’s happening. What will it take? Will it take being restricted from travelling internationally? Or being restricted from travelling from city to city, or even within one’s own city? Or will those restrictions be shrouded in the common pretext, “it is for your own good.” Will people notice this oppression when they no longer can use cash at their discretion? Or when they are restricted from buying certain items they want because they are over their quota? Or will they notice when the heat or air conditioning in their home is adjusted beyond their will? Or will they see this too as “for everyone’s benefit due to the dangers of climate change?” Will they finally notice when they are arrested because they mentioned while in line at the grocery store that they were not pleased with the prices of lettuce going up and blamed the current government for inflation?
It is hard to say when they will notice, if ever, that something just isn’t quite right with the way the world is being handled. Right now, it is all “for the good of mankind and the planet.” They will blame their depression, anxiety, and the deep gnarly sense of helplessness they feel, on nearly everything else other than the real reason—that their soul is being eaten away by the very system that promised to take care of them.
Todd Hayen is a registered psychotherapist practicing in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He holds a PhD in depth psychotherapy and an MA in Consciousness Studies. He specializes in Jungian, archetypal, psychology. Todd also writes for his own substack, which you can read here
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The Manifesto and Mein Kampf thrown in together in the same paragraph, shows how indoctrinated in the ”enlightened centre” of rational capitalism you still are.
There is nothing, NOTHING, in common with historical materialistic critique and workers taking over the means of production thus self-actualising as a class FOR itself, with the capitalistic/corporate expansion into our own bodies (genetic engineering of everything) and the increasing brutality of faltering western regimes who try to latch onto their biggest remaining industries- i.e. weapons and bioengineering. On the contrary, we see the imperialisms of yesterday turning INWARDS, to -oh the unthinkable- their own citisens, to further discipline both labour and consumption, to regain a tighter control on the totality of circulation of capital. That is why immigrants are targeted again, seemingly (and only seemingly) by the same movement that opposes restrictions justified in the name of public health, to silence workers critique on the new paradigm of the 4th Industrial Revolution (the historic era which we are suffering right now), to make it seem as if the only legit criticisms, if any, that exist in -the fringes of- public dialogue can only be springing by business owners and worried bosses of industries of the remnants of the 2nd Industrial Revolution, or religious fundamentalists (and anyone lacking official papers to certify studying in educational institutions will be lumped in that second category, local or immigrant). To a certain degree, the affected local (and immigrant) middle class of Europe, caught by surprise that they are used as human experiments and that democracy is indeed becoming a sham every day (as they were used to believing this happened ”elsewhere”, but not in the enlightened West), unaware or not conscious enough of workers’ critique and facing the collapse of their illusions (I am still talking about both locals and immigrants), will be volatile to ”terrorist attacks” propaganda and other propaganda that will try to push their thought process into an anti-immigrant and convenient for the status quo box. It is imperative for power in such historic transitions that the proles blame everything but the core of the system, that system being capitalism, its core being the mass production of goods solely for their exchange value, which alienates humans from labour, from each other and, as we have been experiencing for the past 40 years, from their own bodies.
No Todd, what you are describing in your article and what we are undergoing, is unopposed capitalism, imperialism, that goes unchallenged by its only real foe: the working class and its evaluation of the world.
Hitler worshiped Hegel’s Historiosophy based of mythology of historical idealism epitomized in art by by Goethe, Heine and Wagner. He despised Marx’s for his materialistic philosophy of history devoid of mythology and for being a Jew.
Ideology of Right Hegelians and it’s descendants like Hitler, inspired by Hegel’s theory of the state formulated in his book entitled “Elements of Philosophy of Right”, were more strictly aligned with Hegel idealistic teachings supporting a view that historiosophy is driven by strong individuals and chosen nations that can read into a will of creator. Adolph Hitler hundred years later, fully subscribing to Right Hegelian view, saw himself and the German nation as chosen one as inheritors of mythical Aryan Nation and hence he sought total war aimed for approval of his own leadership directly from the creator.
I think Hitler despised Marx more because Hitler was a fascist and Marx advocated for the liberation of the working class from ideological and material shackles.
I read both yours and Tom Larsen’s posts by the way and I am thankful.
Everything you need to know about Communism can be found by reading “Animal Farm”.
So fiction is all you need, and facts don’t matter.
Orwell’s Animal Farm depicts party politics, how it corrupts good ideas and ends up in tyranny.
If you think that’s what communism is, how corrupt is your thinking.
Communism is exactly that: Animal Farm. Lived it. You are just theorizing it, but I suppose you had zero experience with it and still you condemn Duncan with corruption of thought.
It’s worth noting that Orwell went to Spain to “shoot a Fascist” and came away warning of the dangers of Communism!
I like the bottom line which is, “host vs parasite.” In the US, the best excuse parasites could come up with for enslaving “host” US taxpayers is elites need the cash to continue their global genocide (“Freeing the World to Death,” Blum). Per Philip Giraldi, “The Deep State…considers global conflict as the price to pay for maintaining its largesse from the US taxpayer. Continuous warfare is its only business product.”..11/7/2019, Strategic Culture. The only solution is for US taxpayers to be separated from the Pentagon, ie, US must be broken up into 3 or more parts.
So what happens if I don’t submit to a “needs” assessment?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_each_according_to_his_ability,_to_each_according_to_his_needs
Origin of the phrase
The complete paragraph containing Marx’s statement of the creed in the Critique of the Gotha Programme is as follows:
In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labor, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labor, has vanished; after labor has become not only a means of life but life’s prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-around development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly—only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs![6]
Although Marx is popularly thought of as the originator of the phrase, the slogan was common within the socialist movement. The origin of this phrasing has also been attributed to the French utopian Étienne-Gabriel Morelly,[7][8] who proposed in his 1755 Code of Nature “Sacred and Fundamental Laws that would tear out the roots of vice and of all the evils of a society”, including:[9]
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BTW: that’s the most Marx I’ve ever read and I’ve no intention of reading any more!
That’s the best way to remain ignorant: simply refuse to know.
That’s also the best way to maintain whatever opinions about all things.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias
Likewise, I’m not going to read anything of Joseph Smith – yet his book supposedly promises “eternal life”. There have been lots of people who have had religious cults formed in their name – and I’m in a state of ignorance regarding the vast majority. With regard to Marx, I’ve not seen anything from any of his followers which would lead me to rethink that position. Moreover, the short passage above suggests that he doesn’t personally believe in one of the central tenets. That is, he sees “according to need” being achievable only in some wishful thinking, never-never land. If that’s the case, he should state the point clearly and unambiguously.
We can read philosophy without following anyone.
Only primary sources are valid, in science.
There have been lots of philosophers – and many have (or have had) their followers. I’m only ever going to read a tiny fraction. Any ubiquitous reality – e.g. society and the human condition – is going to be described by a multitude of philosophers. Moreover, considerable understanding can be attained through direct experience and from varied, non-academic sources. Consequently, the reality itself is the primary source – rather than any particular writer.
It should be possible to describe and debate these realities without invoking Marx. This is the approach followed by Parenti and it’s why I find his material worth reading/watching. Most Marxists, however, are incapable of dropping the ideology and the associated verbiage – and this makes conversation impossible.
In a typical conversation I will be told that:
a) it’s a class struggle
b) capitalism (which is never defined) is to blame
c) private property should be abolished
d) we need to form a unity to fight the evil capitalists
Moreover, I will rarely find support among Marxists for:
e) liberty
f) due process
g) action on working class grievances such as mass immigration
Consequently, there’s not much common ground, anyway!
Capitalism is easily defined. It’s a hierarchical social system (class society) based on buying and selling of commodities (the money system).
Here’s an illustration to make that point:
This pyramid scheme is basically a money-cult where money is above all people. Money is God that decides who lives and who dies, and what kind of life individuals can have in society.
Money is the Big Lie that has fooled everyone.
No-one is free under capitalism, and the illustration and thinking about it makes it quite clear. Everyone is playing some sick role in this game of life, trying to please that insatiable God.
And for no good reason.
Basically all people need and want the same things. We want peace and abundance. We want to have a good life. We want to be free in a just society. And so on.
But the money-god of global capitalism is against it. That’s been made very clear in this new war against humanity, the covid-scam and everything it has revealed.
After revelation, truth wins.
Lies are really not based on anything solid. This cult will end or it ends us.
This means the end of capitalism.
And communitarianism is a hierarchical social system (class society) based on secret hand-shakes, cronyism, technocracy, etc. And, of course, the people at the top of the hierarchy want to enjoy the benefits of wealth – so they use all the same violence and oppression that get used under extreme capitalist societies. Only now it’s for the “common good”.
So here’s another reason I detest “anti-capitalists”. You’re not opposed to the hierarchy, the oppressions, the violence. Rather, you’re just opposed to certain justifications for it!
Being against hierarchy, oppression and violence is exactly the reason why people are against capitalism.
But why are you for capitalism? Why do you think money and state are good?
Do you know what money is, or a state?
As most human history has been lived in moneyless and stateless societies, what makes this recent invention of money, state and capitalism so great?
And please, do not resort to usual excuses which aren’t true, like ”that’s how it’s always been”, ”it’s the will of God”, or ”it’s the best system ever invented”.
That’s not my definition of capitalism. Oppressive hierarchies can exist without capitalism. And capitalism can exist without oppressive hierarchies.
So what is your definition of capitalism?
You say it can exist without oppressive hierarchies. That would mean equality. That would mean without social classes. That would mean everyone getting their equal and fair share of our common land, its resources and its products.
Has such capitalism ever existed? If so, where and when?
It’s the investment of resources into an enterprise with the expectation of obtaining a profit. That resource may be financial, but more frequently it involves time, energy and personal focus. Investing in one’s education or skill acquisition is a form of capitalism. Likewise, for investing in creative projects and for building one’s own business. Similarly, the profit may be financial, but it can also include other outcomes – such as the sense of accomplishment, or independence, etc.
In addition to this, there’s big business capitalism. And this involves large organisations making and providing goods and service. There are exceptions, but commercial businesses are usually better at this role than publicly owned organisations. This is because they face competition and bad organisations either get taken over or they go bust. Within this group I would include retail and commercial banking; and similar financial services.
All the above has a proven record of existence. Moreover, laws and regulations can be implemented so as to protect people against exploitation and abuse.
The real danger is when the big-money capitalists get in the position of owning government and its institutions. However, there are similar problems associated with having government owned by ideologues.
—
It wouldn’t mean any such thing – but I couldn’t be bothered debating it with you!
About private property and property rights protected by the states: Why do you think it’s a good idea that some individuals, because of their wealth created by profits, own this planet, Earth?
About money: Why do you think it’s a good idea that some individuals called bankers can create money out of nothing for profits?
About states: Why do you think it’s a good idea that some individuals can create laws and force them on everyone because states have the monopoly of violence?
About you: If you belong to those few individuals, I get it. It is then your interest to speak on behalf of the system.
But it’s not in the interest of those, or us, who don’t have money.
People can do nothing with their skills and education and so on, if they’re homeless and starving. When human life is dependent on money, money has all the value and human life none.
Capitalism has its inner logic that follows the dictates of money making, profits. Take something and sell it. Buy something and sell it. If you have nothing to sell and you can’t steal, well you just have to sell yourself, your body, your body parts, your time, your life, even your soul.
Capitalism IS the global system. Inherent in capitalism is the idea that people have to pay them for mere survival. And the idea that people must compete against each other. So it’s war. It’s conflict. It’s reoccurring crisis and depression. Abusing human life for money is the whole idea of capitalism. It isn’t good for anyone. Evil, with all its demons and false gods, is never good.
Mammon is a great evil.
When some idea and ideology (capitalism, in this case) is based on nothing but illusion (money), there is absolutely nothing, and no good reason, for its existence.
In a liberty-oriented, democratic society, the capitalist hierarchy is constrained by implementing laws against monopolies and cartels. Hence, there’s no single peak. Also, by enacting a variety of labour policies (employment rights, union recognition, etc) the working classes account for a great deal of a nation’s GDP. As a consequence, it’s possible for everybody to live at a level of reasonable comfort – with essential needs being met.
So no, it doesn’t mean “the end of capitalism”.
They might own everything and everyone, but it ain’t “capitalism”!
This is the wrong way around. Brave New World is set further in the future than is 1984, at a time when the crude brutalities described in Orwell’s novel are no longer necessary, since the masses have been scientifically conditioned to love the system that rules them. It’s some time since I read either novel, but I remember that Huxley depicts a technocracy which superseded earlier, fear-based dictatorships, as the latter always ended up in ruins.
I am not saying the authors intended it the way that I have suggested. This is my “order,” not theirs. Either way works fine depending on how you look at it.
A little learning is a dangerous thing. What you write about Marx or communism reveals only your ignorance. Money, state and capitalism do not exist in communism.
Communism means a classless, moneyless and stateless society.
Karl Marx (1818 – 1883) had nothing to do with the formation of the Soviet Union or the Soviet bloc. The Soviet Union was not communist at all, it was a state capitalistic system governed by one political party, the Bolsheviks.
Calling capitalism, its institutions, its money system, its industrial system, its imperialism and totalitarian nature communism is either absurdly stupid or a deliberate lie.
Communism is what existed in the Americas before Columbus sailed there on behalf of a European royal family (money) and state, starting colonialism, which means stealing the land resources of the people and killing them in masses, enslaving the rest, treating people and nature as property.
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/columbus-reports-his-first-voyage-1493
thank you for an educated post – I’m so tired of those who have no theory under their belt opining on what they think Communism means 👏👏
There was NO COMMUNISM before Columbus!
Simple abuse by falsely superior group over a “lesser” group by corrupt leaders.
One can plug “Capitalism” into this equation; in fact, this behaviour can happen within the braintrust of any”-ism”: Catholicism, Judaism, Socialism, totlitarianism…
Why then, when it is couched within Communism, it’s supposed to be worse?
In the USSR and other communist countries including China (read the Last Emperor) all the private property owners were re-educated and offered work on the assembly line, put in concentration camps, or killed. Those countries had “planned economies”, not a competitive, free market based economy. 99% of the population was stealing from anywhere they were employed, including people “employed” in government and they get the big cake.
You by saying the Indian tribal system was “communism” shows you lack the capacity of basic human thinking, man. I don’t say you lie, but I say you are very off tune. Seriously. Pre-columbus peoples practiced free market economy, definitely NOT “planned economy”. They also had their land, NOT on paper, but many settled tribes knew where their boundaries were, but some were nomadic. However the Inka, Aztec and other peoples were feudalistic, slave owner cast societies. Man, you are off tuned, bro. I do really feel sorry for you.
I haven’t studied Aztec anthropology, but I know they were nothing like in stories made up by violent conquistadors in an attempt to justify their own actions. Incas certainly didn’t have any kind of free market, which is just a euphemism for capitalism.
Incas, just like those peoples Columbus met, practiced free sharing of everything. Incas didn’t have any money, marketplaces or shops, since they didn’t buy or sell anything. People’s needs were satisfied and we could say they lived in luxury.
Since Incas didn’t write, keep records, many things said about them are mere illusions, imagined from the standpoint of a conquistador.
People who are brainwashed by capitalist and state propaganda are, of course, filled with misconceptions.
No state has ever been communist because that is impossible. Socialist states, or so-called, are and have been states governed by rulers, since that is the nature of the State. It doesn’t make any difference what’s the name of the political party that rules, makes laws, thinks it has the power over people.
Poor old Jose Padilla, forgotten by all, I guess.
I guess purpose of this post was to provoke debate and that is why deliberately put forward all the misconceptions and cliches about communism and that includes complete misunderstanding of the term itself.
Reading program documents of Communist party of Soviet Union (KPSS) reveals true reality. KPSS stated clearly that there was no Communism as a socioeconomic system in in Soviet Union but KPSS was leading long transitional period dedicated to materially and socially preparing society for revolutionary change that would mean complete egalitarianism i.e, dissolution of classes and elites including political elites and communist parties that would have served no further purpose.
The Soviets ran what de facto was state near monopoly capitalism with comprehensive welfare state but not socialism that requires bottom up self governance. The rest of eastern block was running something similar to Western European social democracy where state owned or controlled about 65%+ of economy in comparison to 70%-90% in eastern bloc. In Poland 70% of land was in private hands of individual farmers. Nazi state controlled similar percentage of German economy.
Schwab takes his clues from Nazis he is familiar with rather than from Soviet communism that did not exist at all.
The existence of communist parties was dictated by collapse of Second (Socialist) International’s leading force of SPD after leaders of its revolutionary faction Luxemburg and Liebknecht were de facto executed by SPD leadership as the party turned away from socioeconomic socialist revolution and opted for preserving rule of private capital while in power.
As a result Lenin created Third (Communist) international in 1919 and slew of new communist parties including KPD split from SPD (Germany) , PCI split from PSI (Italy), KPP split from PSS(Poland), Communist Party of USA that split from Socialist Party and Chinese communist party split from socialist party etc.,. The term communist was meant to emphasize two things: socioeconomic revolution and internationalism meaning unity and solidarity among workers in revolutionary struggle worldwide to counter United global capital.
We see now what dramatic split and collapse of socialist movement resulted with; nothing by defeat for people who work for living.
Only ignorance of Marx works would permit considering question like what kind of socialist state Marx envisioned. Marx as student of Hegel was many times asked to write theory of socialist state an analogy to Hegel’s Philosophy of Right.
That was impossible because socialist state as understood within contemporary to Marx bourgeois liberal democratic political framework could not exist and in fact could not exist at all as it would have violated principle of internationalism and hence would have destroyed viability of self governed equal, equitable egalitarian locally self govern from bottom up socialist society that socialist revolution was aimed for.
Estern block states were never ideologically grounded in Marx ideas. Even Lenin envisioned global revolution that Bolsheviks had to catch-up with as it started in 1915 worldwide after rehearsal of 1905. it was Stalin who called off real international socialist revolution and in 1943 finally dismantled Third (Communist) International created specifically worldwide for that purpose. Because of Stalin an issue of “what is socialist state” was risen at all but by then revolution failed.
Marx’s famous expression “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” is not just nice utopian rhetoric but his expression of equal, equitable, egalitarian socialist society of caring (services) and sharing (production) where caring and sharing is the only field of social competition that releases individual creativity. it is an imperfect analogy of a career in capitalist society.
Real socialist economy is a Demand side economy that responds to individually articulated needs. Those needs are related to healthy food, safe secure shelter, access to companionship and community and opportunity to create. As far as satisfaction or happiness is concerned socialist society is stable, serotonin driven while capitalism is unstable and dopamine driven. The socialist economy is also dramatically less wasteful than Supply Side economy as it grows only with growth of basic needs of population making it ecologically self sustainable.
The issue of ownership and commons is also not well understood among many at all. They have difficulty to understand that while ownership of commons is collective individuals control their lives and their “belongings” subject to self governance rules set by consensus. All those “belongings” are passed to community (for those who need them) after death. Additionally the concept of “control” is mostly collective as there is no alienation of labor in socialist society so everything what is produced is driven by demand and provided at free will by producers as they seek to increase their social status.The side effect is that no labor or invention can be misused or abused against will creators as creators control it..
And finally Communist Manifesto still is enigma for those who missed historical context of early 1848 and ensuing Spiring Of Nations which was no socialist revolution at all. It was radical bourgeois liberal political revolution to oust rule of aristocracy in Europe that Marx and Engels were warning against as they saw untamed bourgeoise capital transformation accelerated by free trade globalism as a call to arms amount workers worldwide to prevent drastic reengineering and transformation of society into de facto technocratic industrial capitalism under thin veil of democratic process they learned to control.
“Communism is just the flipside of Capitalism”
“Some comrades will always be more equal than others”
At their unregulated extremes both Communists and Capitalists are totalitarian.
Just read Gulag Archipelago to see how far marxism can go.
Globalcapitalism is unregulated – covid showed us that.
Any measures to secure control are justified.
It’s apparently for our own good.
Solzhenitsyn before his death effectively repudiated his own “Archipelago Gulag” as supposedly intended criticism of Soviet system. Living in US he realized its similarity to the West but with different forms of deception. Orwell did the same with 1984.
If even half of what AS wrote was true, the soviet system was monstrous. Just as the unregulated capitalist system is becoming monstrous.
Any extreme is a bad thing
We’re going into that now
It seems those who hate Marx the most are those have not seriously engaged with his work – like Mr. Hayen here. H
Here’s an excerpt from the article that Jeffrey Strahl linked to below:
In the 1950s and ’60s the revelations of “Early Marx” gave the lie alike to the oppressors of East and West. Early Marx, as millions discovered for themselves was the irreconcilable enemy not only of genocidal, capitalist, “free enterprise” wage-slavery, but also of institutionalized, “official,” bureaucratic state-capitalist “Marxism.” Against all forms of man’s inhumanity to man: Marx’s youthful revolutionary humanism helped inspire a worldwide resurgence of radical thought and action that became known as the “New Left” and gave the bosses and bureaucrats of all countries their biggest scare since the Spanish Revolution of 1936. In an intellectual atmosphere already bright with molotov cocktails tossed at Russian tanks by young workers in Budapest in 1956, and at U.S. tanks by black youth in Chicago and dozens of other U.S. cities ten years later; Marx’s Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 brought to the world exactly what revolutionary theory is supposed to bring: more light.
Early Marx was no Marxist, and never even had to pronounce himself on the matter, for Marxism hadn’t been invented yet. Late Marx was no Marxist, either; and said so himself, more than once. Lukewarm liberals and ex-radicals galore have genuflected endlessly on Marx’s jocular disclaimer, in vain attempts to convince themselves and the gullible that the author of The Civil War in France wound up on the side of the faint-hearted. But when Marx declared “I am no Marxist” he was certainly not renouncing his life’s work or his revolutionary passion.[11] He was rejecting the reification and caricature of his work by “disciples” who preferred the study of scripture to the study of life, and mistook the quoting of chapter and verse and slogan for revolutionary theory and practice. Unlike these and legions of later “Marxists,” Marx refused to evaluate a constantly changing reality by means of exegeses of his own writings. For him, the study of texts-and he was a voracious reader if ever there was one – was part of a process of self-clarification and self-correction, a testing of his views against the arguments and evidence of others, a broadening of perspectives through an ongoing and open confrontation with the new and unexpected. For Late Marx, the motto doubt everything was no joke. Or at least it was not only a joke.
This is especially noticeable in the last decade of Marx’s life, and the Ethnological Notebooks are an especially revealing example of his readiness to revise previously held views in the light of new discoveries. At the very moment that his Russian “disciples” – those “admirers of capitalism,” as he ironically tagged them – were loudly proclaiming that the laws of historical development set forth in the first volume of Capital were universally mandatory, Marx himself was diving headlong into the study of (for him) new experiences of resistance and revolt against oppression – by North American Indians, Australian aborigines, Egyptians and Russian peasants. As we have seen, this study led him not only to dramatically and extensively alter his earlier views, but also to champion a movement in Russia that his “disciples” there and elsewhere scorned as “ahistorical,” “utopian,” “unrealistic” and “petty-bourgeois.” Even today such epithets ate not unfamiliar to anyone who has ever dared to struggle against the existing order in a manner unprescribed by the “Marxist” Code of Law.
Late Marx also undercuts the several neo- and anti-Marxisms that have, from time to time, held the spot-light in the intellectual fashion-shows of recent years-those hothouse hybrids concocted by specialists who seem to have persuaded themselves that they have gone “beyond Marx” by modifying his revolutionary project of “merciless criticism of everything in existence” into one or another specifically academic program of inoffensively mild and superficial criticism, not of everything, but only of whatever happens to fall within the four walls of their particular compartmentalized specialty. Not surprisingly, when the advocates of these neo-Marxisms finally get around to adopting a political position, it tends to be incurably reformist. Their sad fate in this regard serves to remind us that it is not by being less merciless in our criticism, less rigorous in, our research, or less revolutionary in our social activity that we are likely to go beyond Marx. Despite their pompous claims, ninety-seven percent of the neo-Marxists arc actually to the right of the crude and mechanical Marxists of the old sects, and the separation of their theory from their practice tends to be much larger. Certainly the Wobbly hobo of yesteryear, whose Marxist library consisted of little more than the IWW Preamble and the Little Red Song Book, had a far surer grasp of social reality – and indeed – of what Marx and even Hegel were talking about – than today’s professional phenomenologist-deconstructionist neo-Marxologist who, in addition to writing unreadable micro-analytical explications of Antonio Gramsci, insists on living in an all-white neighborhood, crosses the university clerical-workers’ picket line, and votes the straight Democratic ticket.
There is every reason to believe that “Late Marx” and the Ethnological Notebooks in particular; will provide for the next global revolutionary wave something of the illumination that Early Marx brought in the 60s. By helping to finish off what remains of the debilitating hegemony of the various “Marxist” orthodoxies a well as the evasive and confusional pretensions of the various “neo-Marxisms,” Late Marx will contribute to a new flowering of audacity, audacity and still more audacity that alone defines the terms of revolutionary theory and practice.
Late Marx emphasized as never before the subjective factor as the decisive force in revolution. His conclusion that revolutionary social transformation could proceed from different directions and in different (though not incompatible) ways was a logical extension of his multi-linear view of history into the present and future. This new pluralism turned out to be emphatically anti-reformist, however, and it is pleasant to discover that the proponents of gradualism, nationalization, Euro-communism, social-democracy, “liberation theology” and other sickeningly sentimental and fundamentally bourgeois aberrations will find no solace in Late Marx. On the contrary, the Ethnological Notebooks and Marx’s other writings of the last period develop both the fierce anti-statism that became a prime focus of his work after the Paris Commune, and the merciless critique of religion that had provided the groundwork of his writings of 1843-45. Late Marx did not become an anarchist, but his last writings establish a firm basis for the historical reconciliation of revolutionary Marxists and anarchists that André Breton called for in his Légitime Défense in 1926.
Pivotal to all the excitement, playfulness, humor, discovery and diversity of Late Marx-so reminiscent of the mood of the 1844 texts – his anthropological investigations have a special relevance for today. If a century later, Marx’s “return to the projects of his Paris youth” still glows brightly with the colors of the future, it is because the possibilities of the revolutionary strategy suggested in these notebooks and related writings are far from being exhausted.
A gathering of the loose ends of a lifetime of revolutionary thought and action, the Ethnological Notebooks embody the final deepening and expanding of Marx’s historical perspectives, and therefore of his perspectives for revolution, by Marx himself. They are, in a sense, the last will and testament of Marx’s own Marxism. In these notes the “philosophical anthropology” of 1844 is empirically filled in, made more concrete, theoretical
rounded out and in the end qualitatively transformed for, as Hegel observed in the Phenomenology, “in the alteration of the knowledge, the object itself also…is altered”.
Fragmentary though they are, the Notebooks, together with the drafts of the letter to Vera Zasulich and a few other texts, reveal that Marx’s culminating revolutionary vision is not only coherent and unified, but a ringing challenge to all the manifold Marxisms that still try to dominate the discussion of social change today, and to all truly revolutionary thought, all thought focused on the reconciliation of humankind and the planet we live on. In this challenge lies the greatest importance of these texts. A close, critical look back to the rise and fall of ancient pre-capitalist communities, Marx’s Ethnological Notebooks and his other last writings also look ahead to today’s most promising revolutionary movements in the Third World, and the Fourth, and our own.
Raya Dunayevskaya, to whom we owe the best that has been written on the Notebooks[12], rightly pointed out that “there is no way for us to know what Marx intended to do with this intensive study.” One need not be a card-carrying prophet to know in advance that this undeveloped work on underdeveloped societies will be developed in many different ways in the coming years.
But here is something to think about, tonight and tomorrow: With his radical new focus on the primal peoples of the world; his heightened critique of civilization and its values and institutions; his new emphasis it on the subjective factor in revolution; his ever-deeper hostility to religion and State; his unequivocal affirmation of revolutionary pluralism; his growing sense of the unprecedented depth and scope of the communist revolution as a total revolution, vastly exceeding the categories of economics and politics; his bold new posing of such fundamental questions as the relation of Man and woman, humankind and nature, imagination and culture, myth and ritual and all the “passions and Powers of the mind.” Late Marx is sharply opposed to, and incomparably more radical than, almost all that we know today as Marxism. At the same time, and everyone who understands Blake and Lautreamont and Thelonious Monk will know that this is no mere coincidence, Marx’s culminating synthesis is very close to the point of departure of surrealism, the “communism of genius”.
I appreciate you addressing late Marx writings. lDefinitely following Marx’s writings to the letter would have been last thing Marx wanted as it would have meant reader’s complete lack of grasp of his central idea of Historical Process driven by Historiosophy of social materialism that is dialectic in its nature.
In fact all Marx’s writings must be treated not as dogmatics but dialectics, expressions of evolution of his theoretical thought while more data was coming and his own understanding was evolving to face new social realities.
In fact the dialectic process of Kant and Hegel itself inherently assumes that knowledge acquisition is an iterative process of denouncing our own previous delusions of reality that hit back at us, not some sudden stroke of Genius good for eternity.
In fact in a short form this issue was also addressed by Engels after Marx’s death.
Friedrich Engels pamphlet [actually 1892 English Edition Introduction] entitled “General Introduction and the History of Materialism” turned out to be used as a foundation of some theoreticians of Marxism claims of scientific nature of Marx’s Historical Materialism wrongly treated as precisely predictable, rational science resembling physics or chemistry and unfortunately contributing to too many failed predictions by Marx’s followers of what they presented as timing and character of expected social transformation of sociopolitical regimes.
Marxists, who were significantly influenced by petty bourgeois ideology that in turn opposed bourgeois social radicalism that left them behind, outside of new post feudal power regime, could not politically afford ideological wobbling and uncertainty in their message to working class.
That created all kinds of self reinforcing delusions about revolution and aftermath. In fact they often refused to acknowledge their own ideological confusion believing too much in their own power to shape new reality regardless of lack of proper understanding of old reality. And that resulted in self disenfranchisement from revolution blaming working class failure of achieving certain state of class conscientiousness really meaning lack of support for their own ideas of future society and how to get there.
Thank you.
I don’t hate Marx. And this is partly for the reason you state; i.e. I haven’t read a single word of Marx. However, other than a handful of exceptions (e.g. Michael Parenti), I detest Marxists. You also state the main reason I detest Marxists; that is:
Marxism is a religious cult. Most likely, and as with all the other Babylonian creations (Abrahamism, Psychiatry, Public Health, etc) it was created with the intent of being a religious cult. However, despite the retardedness, some of the others at least label themselves correctly.
Would you judge Jesus by the Mormons?
It is interesting that you mention Michael Parenti – he was the real deal. Real Marxists don’t get jobs in academia…
Do I judge the source from the effluent? Not necessarily. The source may be pure, mountain spring water, but the river may terminate in a fetid swamp. The problem with both Jesus and Marx is that it’s not possible to know the true source. In the case of Marx, even if I were to study his writings, it presumably wouldn’t tell me about who commissioned him to write and why (see JFK’s press association speech).
With regard to Jesus, if we were to assume the Biblical account to be true, then he indicates (correctly in my view) the nature and location of the true source – being the kingdom within – and he communicates from that source (this being an extremely rare ability). However, distortions are created as soon as the unspoken wisdom becomes a message. Far greater distortions are subsequently inserted down the ages such that the outcome can be a complete inversion of the original intent.
With regard to Parenti, I’ve watched several of his presentations and read some of his work. I don’t agree with everything he says, but the points he makes are usually worth thinking about.
Caught your article a few minutes ago via an email link. Getting Off-Guardian emails used to be hit or miss. Now they seem to come regularly. The Yahoo censors are getting lazy, I guess.
My response. Exactly.
A video of the head of the head of WHO (too lazy to dig his name up-same guy) was “trending” on Twitter-X (where I have been spending much more of my time lately. Hence, the reference to the email.)
Back to WHO’s video. The video was directed at “young people”. Apparently “lies” about WHO have been trending on Twitter-X about WHO’s intent. Note that I may just be connected to the Twitter-X “trending lies” given that I write those “lies” several times a day and every time I come across a thread even remotely related.
They are taking direct aim at “young people” because they are the ones that will be most affected by WHO and their agenda. You…could…say…that…again…. Weird how WHO is focusing on the most fertile segment of the population. What they say is, “It’s your future”. What they mean is “they want to eliminate you from the future” to stem population growth.
Quite a coincidence, I thought;
Given that the Hundreds of millions of people have been killed, maimed and sterilized in the first Covid clot shot culling, according to VAERS data and the Denis Rancourt statistical study. You have to hope that “young people” are paying attention better than WHO wants. This IS one of the points I make every day.
In one of those threads, John Kerry was accused of supporting the culling of 95% of the world population and the group in the thread received a warning that it was not true according to unnamed fact checkers. I corrected the facts in a response. I stated that John Kerry supported the United Nations/WHO/WEF plan to cull the world population and explained that, chimp lady, Jane Goodall stated the goal out loud in a WEF interview.
Semantics.
Meanwhile, as we all know, Kerry worked really really really really hard on the health and climate treaties (as you could tell by the veins popping in his face as he strained to emphasize the importance of the treaties at Davos) that will surrender our sovereignty to WHO,The United Nations and the WEF. I would interpret that as being directly connected to the plan to kill 7.5 billion people.
Wouldn’t you?
A note to the “Young People” who come across this (and I write this on Twitter-X often).
What I have written begs the question: Are you part of the 5% elite or the the 95% slated to be culled?
That gives you to options: One: Get on the list of the elites. Or. Two: Defund and disband WHO, the United Nations and the WEF while holding world leaders accountable for attempting to surrender our sovereignty to these organizations via health and climate treaties.
Wind turbines and solar panels are just a charade to make us feel good as we are being transported to the nearest medical center to get the latest clot shot booster.
Once we are dead, the turbines and panels and carbon reduction plans will no longer be needed.
Tarring and feathering. Hanging. Guillotine. Burned at the stake. Electric Chair. Drawn and quartered. “Gonna git mid-evil wit you.” (Pulp Fiction)
I feel better already.
Let’s get the party started.
WEF backwards is FEW.
Great video. Posted it on Twitter-X
Here’s a key to understanding their doublespeak: they always talk about money. Whatever they say, it’s always about their money. And of course the power their money has.
But what is money?
What is all that wealth they have in their private hands?
When they speak about ”our democracies” it must be understood they mean it. Literally. Like everything is theirs: democracies, public health, environment, climate… They are the private owners of everything. And everything is about money.
But how can anyone listen to Klaus Schwab without laughing?
Definitely comical. Even more so as he strains emotionally to keep his audience from walking out on his presentations. Much the way he did when a fellow speaker called him a mother fucker (or whatever name it was) as he sat on stage burping up his steak and lobster lunch that was washed down with 500 dollar a bottle wine.
Klaus S is the new Lenin? I did not realize he was planning to overthrow the parasitic capitalist elite so the proletariat could seize the means of production. And profit and labor exploitation will disappear? Of course he is not, and he and the WEF are not “communist” in any sense.
This is an ignorant perspective from the petit bourgeoisie, who don’t want the New Normal but who also don’t like the idea of the working class overthrowing their way of life, “stealing” their minimal wealth. I look forward to the rugged individualists organizing their atomized selves to resist the Reset. Oh right, that sounds like collective action, which sounds anticapitalist, if not communist, which cannot be condoned.
Reptilian values are rife throughout the media. I was fed (via these mysterious online services) an article from the New Yorker entitled, “Inside the Music Industry’s High-Stakes A.I. Experiments” which I thought might be worth a read. Here is the first paragraph:
“Sir Lucian Grainge, the chairman and C.E.O. of Universal Music Group, the largest music company in the world, is curious, empathetic, and, if not exactly humble, a master of the humblebrag. His superpower is his humanity. A sixty-three-year-old Englishman, who was knighted in 2016 for his contributions to the music industry and has topped Billboard’s Power 100 list of music-industry players several times in the past decade, Grainge is compact and a bit chubby, with alert eyes behind owlish glasses. He isn’t trying to be noticed. He presides over a public company worth more than fifty billion dollars, but he could be a small-business owner who sells music in a London shop, as did his father, Cecil. On earnings calls, Grainge can sound more like a London taxi dispatcher than a chief executive. But woe to those who mistake his European civility for a lack of competitive fire. “He is so deceptive with that little kind face and those little glasses,” Doug Morris, the previous chairman of UMG, told the Financial Times in 2003, when he was still Grainge’s boss. “Behind them, he is actually a killer shark.” In 2011, Grainge devoured Morris’s job.”
Depressingly familiar hagiography to build up an image of “a character” who presents as affable and cute but is really full of a “steely determination” (read: sociopathic behaviour) which we are clearly meant to admire. And note the ever present attempt to kid on that this little shark (the word actually used in the article) still “could be a small-business owner who sells music in a London shop” who “can sound more like a London taxi dispatcher than a chief executive”.
You’ll pardon me if I don’t stick around for this corporate circle jerk.
They are so desperate, this reads like early 20th C Bolshevism
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/01/20/russia-to-debate-seizing-property-from-army-critics-a83789
Russia will consider a bill next week that would confiscate the money, property and valuables of anyone convicted of spreading rumors of “fake wars”
Really?
Sounds like fake news to me.
Can you vouch for the veracity of this publication? Who are they and what motivates them?
Russians are passing law that would amount to seizing property acquired during commission of a crime. Any other property is not subject to forfeiture.
In fact this is nothing in comparison to US forfeiture laws that amount to raw stealing by Police. The laws solicited warning from Canadian foreign Affair ministry to Canadians traveling in U.S. “don’t bring cash”.
Any cash over $5000 deposited to US banks are subject to FED anti drug and money laundering investigation that amounts to freezing of assets until legitimacy on cash is proven by owner. Multiple smaller deposits are also investigated.
In US people lost houses because they were visited or temporarily housed a family member who was dealing drugs far outside of premises and without knowledge or consent of owners .
Libertarians should take hard look at America to see her leadership in totalitarian rule.
This only applies to the little people, not the private-jet set.
Suggest you look at your source more closely!
“The Moscow Times is an English-language online-only newspaper based in Moscow. It owned by Dutch publishers and is partially financed by the Dutch government, a fact that is often reflected
in geopolitical questions. It is used to wash the Western angle in political questions and present them as native Russian views; it the first stop for story ideas for most foreign correspondents based in Russia.[1]”
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Moscow_Times
The Moscow Times is a western propaganda outlet.
Trying to raise others’ awareness about the machinations of the media is futile. It doesn’t matter if you point out what the media is missing out. Anything that wasn’t presented in the media didn’t happen. And the ones you’re trying to talk to simply regurgitate the lurid details of the headlines.
I end up walking away. It’s pointless.
You are not the only one who have tried this. End up walking away 😊 . https://youtu.be/Dbb7xeZGR-U
Covid showed up many things in a poor light. And one of those things is that my generation have been a disgrace. I always felt an outsider and I used to blame myself. But when I see on Facebook what my acquaintances are doing with their lives and hear their opinions (or rather, their mindless regurgitation of media memes), I feel so sick I wish none of us had ever been born. We were the “punk generation” and we have turned out to be as nauseatingly gullible as the hippies we sneered at.
God, what a dreary parade of corporate yes men those Facebook “friends” are. Ì think of Adorno’s fitting inversion of Kierkegaard’s Sickness Unto Death as the Health Unto Death. These are the ones who flaunt their bourgeois obsessions and submit to the now totally revealed vacuity of liberal presumption even while STILL somehow convincing themselves they are “with it”, so smart, nobody’s fool etc.
I hear you. Fools, all of them. They will be judged most severely.
Troubling times indeed.
85-90% of humanity turned out to be gullible.
Conscription irises from the demands of the Asset Management class to Government for the forced formation of an expendable slave army, financed at considerable public expense, to destroy another country’s ability to defend itself, for the purposes of acquiring control of that country’s resources and other capital.
The Media, largely owned by the Asset Management class facilitates the bending of the public’s will to service the interests of the Weapons Manufacturers and Resources Extraction Industries, also owned by the same Asset Management class, by deceitfully promoting a false narrative of impending and inevitable war, and thus, the need to prepare the war footing with jingoism, calls to patriotism and good versus evil catoons. Government officials support this fraud like psychopathic children scheming for the promised receipt of the relatively minuscule reward regardless of the likely cost to lives and property destroyed.
This simple and blatant manipulation that has been employed successfully throughout history is again being set in motion to serve the interests of the very wealthy, enabled by the pathetic greed of those within the masses who see a small gain promised as they play their part as a useful tool in the machine. Like doctors promoting a poisonous injection as a vaccine. How could these people claim they did not know better. These greedy cowards exist on all levels of society facilitating evil.
Ah… the failing of ai predictive spell checkers. So annoying! arise
No question of not knowing better. They want most of us dead. When it is so easy to buy leaders, legislators, judges and generals, why not?
I’m wondering why you call it communism. It seems more like fascism to me, or Mussolini’s ‘corporatism’. Its corporatocratic for sure; the government actually serves the corporations more than the latter. Sheldon Wolin calls it “inverted totalitarianism”, a corporatocratic tyranny that does not unite die Volk behind die Fuhrer, but divides them and renders them impotent: “managed” democracy as he calls it. As in business management.
All large vertical organisations, with security and benefits at the top, are 90% likely to be malignant. Doesn’t matter if it’s a totally private affair or a gov group. How about no companies over 100 employees and no gov regions larger than 1/2 day horseride?
None of the so called socialist experiments would have been free of dirty tricks from outside trying to sabotage them, so it’s not possible to score them objectively.
Several French writers have characterised it as the New Feudalism, which is apt since it is the Black Nobility, at the height of its powers in the middle ages, who is promoting the New World Order.
What you see in most of the West is not Capitalism. Profits are privatized but losses centrally bailed out (2009) because national government is in bed with big business. This used to be called fascism. Modern example here in US big pharma + FDA : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzRjkNYT-U8
Still, running on greed will never be an all solving solution. Need should replace greed, but that requires a change of consciousness.
The first kibbutz began in Palestine in 1910. This preceding the Russian chaos (“revolution”) is a coincidence.
Massive, ongoing protests in the streets of Germany, Poland, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, and other European countries descended upon the EU Parliament building in Brussels on Thursday. -story & pictures-
https://jeffereyjaxen.substack.com/p/happening-now-protesting-farmers
The Soviet Union, Mao’s China, and their imitators/satellites…. had as much to do with “communism” as the US, UK, Brazil, Mexico, India, Israel,…. have to do with democracy. Marx and Engels, in their intro to the 25th anniversary edition of The Manifesto, stated they found much of it outdated, but were refusing to edit an historical document to fit the times. Marx turned very anti-statist after the Paris Commune, even more while putting together his Ethnological Notebooks, not fully published in English till the 1980s. You sure don’t seem aware of this history.
https://files.libcom.org/files/Franklin_Rosemont_Karl_Marx_and_the_Iroquois.pdf
Robin Hood did not “rob from the rich and give to the poor.” He robbed from the elite (those who lived above the law) and returned the money to the unjustly taxed.
Robin Hood is a Hollywood movie. Wake up RKae. Its a dream.
Robin Hood is real, but if he weren’t, it would be necessary to invent him.
Tha needs to pay a visit to Nottingham, miduck. Robin Hood existed, but as, you say, not as in the Hollywood movies. Robin Hood – Fact or Fiction? (historic-uk.com)
A Short List (aka – Start of A Long List ?)
** Regurgitated Propaganda Sludge
** Confirmation Bias
** Ideological Capture
** Propaganda Fog
** War By Deception
Farmers Down Under are also Up in Arms. ..Australians are being
urged to attend a Farmers Rally in Canberra on February 6th…
Seems “Enough Is Enough !”
https://cairnsnews.org/2024/02/04/farmers-organise-reckless-renewables-rally-canberra-feb-6-no-more-windmills-solar-panels-or-power-lines/
Are we witnessing the start of A Global Communist Revolution (aka – Seizure of Power) ?
Recall that Lenin, God Bless His Sole, called for a Workers AND peasants Revolution, realising
the success of His Revolution required the peasants involvement…
And remember, Mousey Tongue’s Chinese Communist Revolution was carried through by the
rural proletariat (aka – peasants – aka – farmers)…
Better Red That Dead ? (at least ’til the farmers go back on their farms ?)
Yeah, but ‘never let Stalin get hold of THE ORGANS.’ (V.I. Lenin) I think maybe the 1922 Comintern. Or maybe much more frequently.
That turned out well, didn’t it. By 1934 all the opposition to Stalin were dead or totally terrified into complete submission. The odd opportunistic psychopath in the right (or wrong) place at the right (or wrong) time gets control of the police and intelligence services.
Shazam!
“only about 500 people turned up”……………………………………….LOL. Papa told youuu.
I’m wondering whether the now depressed or the pathologically happy will wake up first.
Probably the former who may just be on the cusp of waking up and may then get up enough gumption to rebel along with the already wised-up ones, before it’s too late.
However, the always “positive” (yea, right) and happy play-actors, no matter the horrible events around them, are so deeply deluded that I believe they will be the ones to sleep-walk into the new dystopia – and STILL be happy.
I hold little hope for the “happy,” for Ignorance is Bliss.
Nope. ‘Ignorance is BLITZ.’
The “scamdemic” disabused me of any interest I ever had in collectivism.
“…we do have to come up with a better word now that it no longer [IT, they, ever did?] has the intention of making community…”
Holy cow, Batman, ya’ think? Then please let’s start using it and refer to the IT that it is, so we can correctly identify the real enemy-ideology that is herding us into digital Hell. Using Marx’s perceptions and ideas as a whipping boy for never supporting collectives (something anarchists use and know a lot about) and anything collectively organized, is just sad and regressive. There is nothing remotely collective about the authoritarian ruling class of the last 300 years in Western countries that continues to make Humanity’s life Hell. They are an anti-egalitarian, single-class based, rich vs poor, authoritarian class, asserting hegemonic control over societies. This enemy ideology is TOTALITARIANism, nothing else.
To cut to the chase, if any ADULT accepts another ADULT being their PARENT autocratically dictating, without uncoerced consent, the conditions and rules of their society and Life, they accepting de facto serfdom. The currently existing problem is totalitarian, nothing more, nothing less. Consentlessness. We need a consent based ADULT society. We need to figure out how to implement it.
Can we please move on past wanky, ambiguous wordsmithing, and get on with solutions?
The solutions are based on the laws of nature, which proved the problems are in denial.
A self feeding everlasting loop of wanky, ambiguous wordsmithing.
+10
“Who will bell the cat?”
Capitalism cannot exist without oligarchy (totalitarianism plus plutocracy), rigged economy, usury and selectively applied laws.
And war. Capitalism’s operating system: conflict.
During the past few days or more i had a dose of The Smug…
Its main symptom is Gloat, which infects & distorts the mind…
Thing is, you never know it when you’re under its spell…
I’m now Saved and back to Normal…
Wot brought me out of it ? Well, i was walking past a local
park and a male voice was heard asking “Who’s a Clever Boy, then ?
Who’s a Clever Boy ?” I turned towards The Voice and saw a man
playing “fetch !” with his dog…
There’s nothing like being called “A Clever Boy” to bring me
out of it…
The Khazarian banksters’ favoured method of control.
Communism has always been bollocks. It’s a trick to force the people into slavery. Under the guise of ‘power to the people’, ‘fairness’, ‘equality’. A load of waffle but what do you get? A ruling class who totally controls the plebs’ freedoms. What utter shite.
Regardless of whatever man-made system they come up with, I will remain outside of it spiritually. In worldly terms I am an anarchist, spiritually I know God is my only authority.
The best presentation about totalitarianism over the last few years is found at After Skool
Killing the Mind – MASS PSYCHOSIS – How an Entire Population Becomes MENTALLY ILL
The illustrated presentation is great for anyone from 12 to 100. It centers on the 1956 publication of psychologist/psychiatrist Joost Meerloo and his amazing book- The Rape of the Mind, – the entirety of which can be read and downloaded at: https://www.google.ca/books/edition/The_Rape_of_the_Mind/NZd9AAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA5&printsec=frontcover
Some Meerloo quotes:
“He who dictates and formulates the words and phrases we use, he who is master of the press and radio, is master of the mind. Repeat mechanically your assumptions and suggestions, diminish the opportunity for communicating dissent and opposition. This is the formula for political conditioning of the masses.”
“Confusing a targeted audience is one of the necessary ingredients for effective mind control.”
‘Ready made opinions can be distributed day by day through the press, radio, and so on, again and again, till they reach the nerve cell and implant a fixed pattern in the brain. Consequently, guided public opinion is the result, according to Pavlovian theoreticians, of good propaganda technique, and the polls [are] a verification of the temporary successful action of the Pavlovian machinations on the mind.‘
Another good one is this video where it is asked of the viewer: Who owns you?
This Film Will Change The Way You See Yourself
This short documentary film illustrates the true meaning of self-ownership and individualism, and highlights the importance of individual rights. The title “Who Owns You?” might seem curious at first, but when you watch the entire film, you will learn why that’s the most important question you can ask yourself in the current moment.
Corporations are both communistic, socialistic and global.
Frames from last century are lexiconically lazy as confirmation bias and availability heuristics are masks for empty wisdom.
The “communism”, “collective”, word chewing cudism, is so useless when we are surrounded by totalitarians everywhere we look.
Capitalism is the thesis; communism is the anithtesis; ultimately, the crucial thing is what that clash is meant to produce, the synthesis, and that’s Fabianism.
See Ratiu’s ‘The Milner-Fabian Conspiracy’. Fabianism has been cloaked in an image that it’s boring, safe and a bit wimpy (gosh – the same trick they pulled with Papa Bush!). However it is open that it’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing and so it is. It’s nothing to do with socialism as H.G. Wells said – it merely used socialism as the ideology nearest to its goals but it hates socialists and thinks they’re idiots. It’s technocratic, transhumanist, neo-feudal and eugenicist. It regards freedom as both inefficient and nothing but chaos. It poses as th exemplar of rationality but it’s profoundly theocratic and rooted in the occult mystery schools.
He called it “the third way” i.e. the synthesis. Here he is at Davos last month, still leading the charge:
https://twitter.com/newstart_2024/status/1746945918467739663
Such a smug bastard!
It’s a very common trait amongst control freaks to assume that anyone who reads something has to be believing in it. I would need to have multiple personality disorder if that were the case, as I have read so many things which conflict with each other that if I agreed with it all I would be stark raving bonkers.
Reading something is more about trying to understand what the writer(s) was thinking. That’s not always easy if they were writing centuries ago, as we have very little context of those times to experience directly. And those of us who know full well that history is not written to convey truth, rather to further the interests of the winners, know that much of what is written about historical times is probably not exactly objective either.
I have read the Communist Manifesto and I have read Adam Smith. I have read Plato and I have read Martin Luther King. I have read what Vladimir Putin has had to say and I have read what Joseph Biden has had to say.
I have zero patience for adults who tell you what you can and cannot read. They can read what they wish and self-censor. They have no rights to tell me what I can or cannot read.
““From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” – fashioned to appeal to teenagers of all ages. When I was a little older I swooned to Robert Nozick’s refashioning of the famous quote.
“From each as he chooses, to each as he is chosen”
How can you speak for the people who are financially feeling the pressures due to bs19 psyop when your on 200$ a hour.?
This article is another higher middle class earner, I watch MSM alt media cuckoo rambling on the build up to a selection year.
Only thing missing from this article was a turning point Canada logo.
“Os Ricos Também Choram”. https://youtu.be/kPUxdt1FZRY
‘Even the very rich aren’t immune,
Death walks closely behind them.’
from ‘Anita’ Ariel 1974.
Anita, long dead now, was the grandmother of some of the Guinness heirs, who had all buggered off to the Bahamas, leaving friends of mine in charge of 60 rooms 7 bathrooms and one room-ridden grandmother and so in in Berkshire. She had the original Cartier multi-gem ring on her little finger. Her husband designed it. Cartier copied it with his permission and it became famous.
.’Anita sits in her room,
a hundred thousand pounds of jewelled rings on her little finger, fashioned by Cartier, for her husband who has since passed away,’
I tried very hard but I couldn’t get her to let me take her out into the sunshine in the fabulous gardens.
You can be miserable in comfort.
To quote the Bard
My brother knows Karl Marx
He met him eating mushrooms in the people’s park
He said ‘What do you think about my manifesto?
‘I like your manifesto, put it to the test-o.’
Took it straight down to meet the anarchist party
I met a groovy guy, he was arty farty
He said ‘I know a little latin ‘amicus amicae”
I said ‘I don’t know what it means’, he said ‘neither do I’
Marx was a mid-19th century economist who like a lot of people of that time had rather idealistic notions of how society could be organized. His observations on capitalism were spot-on and they’re just as relevant today as they were nearly 200 years ago which is why no expense in time, effort and treasure has been spared to discredit his ideas. This has extended to not just propaganda but effectively bribery — our post-WW2 prosperity was designed to highlight just how much better ‘our’ system was than ‘theirs’. (Which explains our modern world — with the threat of communism in Europe receding there was no need to coddle the workers, the ‘unaffordable’ benefits we’d allowed working people were then systematically clawed back.)
Our perceptions of communism were colored by the Russian experience — from the benefit of modern experience you could say that what was once derided as ‘communism’ was really ‘Russianism’. Any other attempts at even a socialist government have attracted significant pushback — sanctions, clandestine and open opposition and so on. Despite this the ideas keep appearing and that’s because they make sense. There’s also a major problem called ‘China’. According to our propaganda it is impossible to have a communist society that’s not free etc., it has to be some kind of giant prison camp where people live in fear, and poverty like the world of “1984”. China was in that mode until they effectively conned us into thinking that they were just a useful cheap labor source. Now the country is modernized and quite prosperous there’s frantic backpedalling by our political class and its propaganda outlets to convince us of the Chinese Menace, to demonstrate how awful they are and so on. Its it bit late for this, though, and it appears that they might be catching — other parts of the world that were imperial domains have noticed that they might do quite well as independent states rather than ‘ex-colonial’ domains. This struggle is truly titanic, the Show of The Century. (I know who’s side I’m on — do you?)
Re: First paragraph – spot on.
During the third quarter, particularly, of the 20th century, First World ‘capitalism’ allowed the plebs the have much longer a piece of the stick than they would without the existence of the Second World threat. Especially in light of the large young postwar generations that were liable to elect some homegrown commie. To that end, governments undertook massive debt. And as you correctly point out, since the threat had gone, sometime in the 1990s, they’ve been tightening the screws. Plus, it’s payback time for all the debt that’s been racked up.
Somewhat inconvenient is the fact that things have kinda changed since then, as per your second paragraph, and the global southeast, hitherto functioning as a source of cheap labor and resources, is refusing to cooperate.
“The style of communism that is upon us (and we do have to come up with a better word now that it no longer has the intention of making community) ”
How about calling it fascism? Multinational corporations are heavily involved in this brave new world. The difference this time, perhaps, is that it’s the corporations pulling the politicians’ strings, rather than the other way around.
Fascism requires nationalism; Globalism is antithetical to it.
Seriously? So why was the Communist anthem the Internationale? (Communism being just a distinct flavor of fascism.) It all depends on how ambitious the fascists are – Globalism being fascist with ambition at the logical limit. There are really only two choices: fascism and freedom.
Yes, seriously. While not all nationalism is fascistic, there is no fascism without a nationalist element.
Because the goal is to make it Global, ie, international. “Workers of the World, Unite.” The current Globalists are doing everything in their power to weaken and destroy national sovereignty and identity. They want you and I to be serfs, or subjects, or chattel, not citizens
Or, While not all people are psychopaths there are no psychopaths without people.
Fallacious arguments are like a morning stretch for the synapses.
All tigers are cats, but not all cats are tigers.
All fascists are nationalists, but not all nationalists are fascists.
My argument is fine.
A nationalist defends his nation or state and attacks another. There’s constant war.
https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/notes-on-nationalism/
The globalist want to see the whole globe as 1 nation under their rule, so they are still nationalist in that sense 😉
And definitely fascists.
Not so.That’s the MSM version. Hannah Arendt in The Origins of Totalitarianism demonstrates that Nazism/fascism is expansionist or imperialist. The Nazi’s, despite their name, were neither nationalist nor socialist.
I haven’t read Arendt, but I don’t see why fascism can’t be both expansionist and Nationalistic at the same time; they aren’t mutually exclusive. FWIW, Communism is also expansionist, and is intended to be Global in extent.
“Workers of the World, Unite!” The Class War is Global.
At any rate, what the PTB intend for us is likely to be something much worse than fascism or Communism, or Marxism, or any of the isms of the last 100 or so years.
RE: I haven’t read Arendt, but I don’t see why fascism can’t be both expansionist and Nationalistic at the same time;
Exactly, you haven’t read Arendt.
No, admittedly, I haven’t read Arendt, at least in toto. That doesn’t mean I’m unfamiliar with her or her arguments. Her opinions aren’t written in stone.
Simon Elmer has remarked several times that the notion we are experiencing communism, that the CEO’s of Blackrock, Pfizer, Goldman Sachs, Google, Microsoft are communists is absurd on its face. What Todd’s article really demonstrates is that the right controls the narrative on anything opposing the agenda of contemporary liberalism. (Many including myself have stressed that we need to abandon the left/right ideological shackles as they don’t help explain what is happening and therefore we’ll not develop real solutions due to that lack of understanding.) This means, practically speaking, that the “opposition” is in the main, definitely controlled.
A reading of the chapter on brain-washing in Mao’s China in William Sargant’s ‘Battle for the Mind’:
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/dr-william-sargant-the-battle-for-the-mind/id1388815042?i=1000643206728
Obviously, Western governments/corporatons would never do any such thing… Sargant only got a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation because they’re nice, helpful people….
Interestingly, Sargant mentions that a preceeding period of weight loss was a proven way of breaking down resistance in people and increasing suggestability.
You’ll eat nothing, and you’ll be happy.
Amerifatties have more resistance than the skinny Chinese. Yeah, why not.
I remember going to Czechoslovakia and East Germany before the wall came down and it was like walking into a black and white movie from the fifties, and nothing had been done to maintain anything since then (that was in the early 80’s). Stayed in this apartment building where practically everything was half or three quarters finished. All sorts of state propaganda signs on the roads, buildings, etc. It was eerie and weird. It wasn’t a “each according to his needs” type thing, it was a situation where nearly everyone was placed at the lowest level and the elite and government officials shared the spoils. Differences among the masses were down to how many apples you got a month versus your neighbors. Kind of like what we have now in Amerika. Except now we have cell phones and smart TVs. The people there, at least most of them, didn’t seem to notice, it was what it was, and they accepted it. Evidently, boiling frogs don’t notice either, until it’s too late, I guess. Maybe most people won’t even notice when it’s too late. Maybe it already is, at least for a lot of things.
Confirmed by a Polish guy born in 1980.
Me: Mum what does it mean ‘Peace and socialism are our aims’?
Mum : Where did you see this?
Me: At my kindergarten.
Mum: It’s bullshit honey.
Mum: But don’t tell anyone pls.
Same experience here. I was living in West Berlin at the time and, just for fun, I’d sometimes listen to GDR radio. Self-congratulatory propaganda at its finest. A bit like Australia, actually. We are the greatest at everything; we live in the “lucky country,” etc.
Everyone should read at least the first chapter of the Communist Manifesto. They will find therein the most concentrated account of the world we are living in. This in particular:
“The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. Conservation of the old modes of production in unaltered form, was, on the contrary, the first condition of existence for all earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionising of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.”
What this underlines is that conservatism and capitalism are incompatible.
So many people have been traumatized into some variation of Stockholm Syndrome where they defend the status-quo over, what is for them due to their circumstances, difficult to imagine alternatives.
Those who control the media propaganda use militarized software systems such as SEAS/SWS to steer the population away from a tipping point or critical mass of awareness that would break the current “spell”.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_Environment_for_Analysis_and_Simulations
These systems use social media as real-time feedback loops to make system “adjustments” towards their desired ’emergent behavior’ outcome for full-spectrum dominance.
Here is another example called Conducttr..
https://www.conducttr.com/
The achilles heel of these systems is the quality or content of the input data.
“It is hard to say when they will notice, if ever, that something just isn’t quite right with the way the world is being handled.”
i don’t know about anyone else, but I noticed it at least back in 2016, and probably before. I couldn’t then put a name to it, or work out what was going on, but I knew something was seriously off.
The PTB revealed more of themselves through the 2016 election cycle, both sides of the Atlantic, and ditto during covid.
The masks came off, and we can now more easily see who they are.
What we saw in the USSR was state-corporatism.
The state owned everything people didn’t.
So no the global shit is actually state-corporate.
But you seem to be hell bent.
Maybe you should pay US prices for health insurance in your Canada.
After all you said you bill $200 an hour. You can afford it 😂
What a load of fucking bollocks. Do one Todd. Your inability to grasp the basics of humanity is mind boggling.
You are hilarious!
What specifically do you object to?
When does a person notice that they are going insane, I say like gvt, never.
They slowly fade first into denial, and second into the strength of their childhood.
That is a good thing. That is how empires crumble.
Interesting article! Marx and Engles joined The League of The Just before writing the Communist Manifesto for them, that was a newly formed organization that had deep ties to Philippe Buonarroti. According to wikiP he was “an Italian utopian socialist, writer, agitator, freemason, and conspirator; His History of Babeuf’s Conspiracy of Equals (1828) became a quintessential text for revolutionaries, inspiring such socialists as Blanqui and Marx. He proposed a mutualist strategy that would revolutionize society by stages, starting from monarchy to liberalism, then to radicalism, and finally to communism.”
He was deeply connected to the secret societies of the time, like Freemasonry, and I’ve seen many podcasters lately trying to figure out who is pulling the strings behind the “globalist” or “deep state” agenda, with quite a few speculating about those secret societies from the past who still influence the “elite” agenda today. I’ve yet to see any of those get the facts of those groups or their ideology totally correct.
The teachings that were the basis for the “secret teachings” of the famous secret societies like Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism etc., had gained a rebirth in Europe and then America beginning a few years after the translation and then newfound popularity of Hermetica during The Renaissance, among leading Italian Catholic philosophers, nobles, and priests. See The Secret Teaching of All Ages
‘I read Marx and Engels’ The Communist Manifesto when I was 17, and I got detention for it.’
I read it when I was 22, had to since it was obligatory course material. I failed the exam since I had problems in defining what a proletarian is. I said something like: those who have no money and therefore want to steal it from those who have.
The idea of communism as Marx meant it is long gone and the whole dictatorship of the proletariat never ended well as it was intrinsically flawed. Anarchism is the only real alternative to what we have now. I.e dismantle the systems of power or better still walk away from them, don’t give them oxygen. One of the great things to come out of the last 3 years is that subversive alternatives flourished. Good ordinary people stepped up to the mark. I’ll never forget attending one of the big anti lockdown demos and one woman coming up to me asking me, animatedly, which groups I was in, she had joined 3 to “fight this sh*t”, one of which went door to door talking to people and giving them a different perspective to what was happening, at that time the censorship was intense on social media. The U.K. mounted an impressive fightback and for certain why the government quickly switched to Ukraine as support for tyranny crumbled.
At the end of the day people make the world we live in and people can remake it or rather make a parallel version and let the old version whither away but definitely not through the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Many medical people in some countries resisted or objected collectively, at professional or even physical risk to themselves. Leaders of ~10 countries and a few legislators also did, and ended up dead.
It appears to me that whatever the ism is, the same grasping, hoarding, cheating, stealing, self important tossers will put on whichever uniform is required and do whatever is required by the ism of the day to maintain their exclusive positions above the masses. What we’re getting now looks very much like corpmunism.
Yep. Done. FU