Modes of production are historical phenomena, guided by technological advancements. Capitalism wasn’t a choice, but a result of growing industrial bourgeois production resolving its contradiction with feudal agrarian production. The steam engine is what accelerated this process. Zooming out, capital is the real master of capitalists, capitalists are merely the high priests of capital best guessing at what it wants, but ultimately are slaves to the profit motive and how to best extract it.
And no worries! One thing that’s helpful, is that the centralization of capitalism over time is exactly what creates a large class capable of collectively planning and running production in the interests of all. The profit motive destroys the profit motive. I try to maintain revolutionary optimism, doomerism is more of a product of the capitalist class trying to remove revolutionary fervor.
Based on your final paragraph, you’d do well with reading leftist theory! I already said I’m a Marxist-Leninist, I actually made an introductory Marxist-Leninist reading list if you want to spend some time on theory, but you can explore whatever leftist tendencies you want to. The two biggest umbrellas are anarchism and Marxism, the former being about decentralization and horizontalism, the latter being about centralization and collectivization (to massively oversimplify), and the biggest tendency in Marxism is Marxism-Leninism. If you want to learn more about what makes these distinct, feel free to ask, I used to be an anarchist myself.
Also, if you can, join an org! If you’re US-based, I recommend something like The Party for Socialism and Liberation. There are probably other orgs local to you, though, so do some shopping around. Getting organized is the only way out of this mess, and into the new. A better world is possible!
Most definitely have a lot of Leftist reading to do! If nothing else, I at least know I’m well Left of Center:))
Now that I’ve mulled it over some more, I think it feels very intentional to me because I do see a lot of similarities between it and Feudalism, yes! It’s like Capitalism is comprised of multiple smaller monarchies, referring to Corporations and any organisation/person with a large amount of capital at their disposal, and thus influence. But, yeah, we’re talking orders of magitude of complexity above traditional feudalism, so it would stand to reason that it’s most likely just a mathematical whirlpool of sorts. I do agree that capital is the main point of power in Capitalism and that everything else has formed around it.
Which, on a personal side note, is so sad when looking at the big picture! It means that the people in power aren’t actually driven by anything concretely Human™, so to speak, they’ve ceeded full control of themselves and their lives over to the accumulation of something entirely fictitious… It’d be lamentable if it wasn’t so damned dangerous…
Thank you so much for the reading list! It’s so nice to have a quasi-curriculum for these things! And I probably will drop a line or two once I get started with the reading! Truth be told, I’m at the point where I know enough to understand just how little I know about the subject, so I can’t even think of relevant questions at the moment. I’ve focused more on existential philosophy and such so far, needed to fix myself first:))
As for joining an org, that’s in my 2-year plan (life got upended, again, so it’s running alongside several other need-to-do stuff). I will lean very heavily into volunteer work, hopefully that’ll open up some political networks as well. If nothing else, it is urgently clear that it’s time to act as a citizen. Thank Christ we’ve managed to pull another 4 years of European Union (Romanian)… We have a lukewarm Centrist now, but at least it’s not a raging Fascist…
Yep! Marx himself said that the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles, after all. Feudalism does have a lot in common with capitalism, but what makes Marx interesting is how he analyzed how capitalism is different. Many leftists of his era were focused on the similarity between capitalism and feudalism, Marx focused on the opposite, how it’s different, and this is what propelled him into scientific socialism, socialism as it emerges from capitalism.
And no problem for the reading list! It’s designed to be completed in order, and is focused on taking someone freshly radicalized but with no experience with leftist theory, and leave them as someone with a firm grasp on the fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism and how to behave as an organized leftist! It also has audiobooks, queer and feminist theory, a good dose of basic history, and more. Since you mentioned philosophy, the 2nd section goes over Dialectical Materialism, so it might be a really good fit for you if that’s your current interest! Still read section 1 before 2, but 2 is a fun section once you get there!
And great to hear you plan on getting organized! Really, that’s step 1, but obviously not everyone can do so immediately due to life events and whatnot. Just do what you can!
Yep, that makes a lot of sense. I mean, it’s much easier to change things if said change is built upon what’s useful from the old. No use throwing out the things which actually do work (whether by design or incidentally, doesn’t matter, happy accidents are still happy), plus it has the added benefit of maintaining some degree of familiarity, so I would imagine that makes the pill easier to swallow.
I’ll most definitely take it in the order given, the new is always prioritised:)) Sounds delectably thorough, my brain will be happy, thank you! And, yeah, that’s pretty much the basis on which I’ve started pulling hard to the Left (used to be Undecided, a.k.a. I’m Severely Depressed And Don’t Have The Space For It). Existentialism steered me toward an understanding of what a satisfying life means for the human psyche, which then shoved me into “well, hey! Sounds like something which would be nice for everyone!” Then I finally saw the world for what it is and… yeah…
Completely agreed, change starts from home, always. It looks daunting, but the fact that so many people remember that Fascism is objectively bad, actually, means it’s not impossible.
Thanks so much once again, both for the resources and the conversation! And sorry again if I came off as hostile, I’ve been struggling to manage a hefty case of misanthropy for the past almost-decade.
No worries, and have fun with it! Feel free to ask any questions or give feedback for it if you want to. It’s also an intro list, there’s a ton you can read beyond it once you finish, but you should be able to figure out what you want to read when you finish it.
Modes of production are historical phenomena, guided by technological advancements. Capitalism wasn’t a choice, but a result of growing industrial bourgeois production resolving its contradiction with feudal agrarian production. The steam engine is what accelerated this process. Zooming out, capital is the real master of capitalists, capitalists are merely the high priests of capital best guessing at what it wants, but ultimately are slaves to the profit motive and how to best extract it.
And no worries! One thing that’s helpful, is that the centralization of capitalism over time is exactly what creates a large class capable of collectively planning and running production in the interests of all. The profit motive destroys the profit motive. I try to maintain revolutionary optimism, doomerism is more of a product of the capitalist class trying to remove revolutionary fervor.
Based on your final paragraph, you’d do well with reading leftist theory! I already said I’m a Marxist-Leninist, I actually made an introductory Marxist-Leninist reading list if you want to spend some time on theory, but you can explore whatever leftist tendencies you want to. The two biggest umbrellas are anarchism and Marxism, the former being about decentralization and horizontalism, the latter being about centralization and collectivization (to massively oversimplify), and the biggest tendency in Marxism is Marxism-Leninism. If you want to learn more about what makes these distinct, feel free to ask, I used to be an anarchist myself.
Also, if you can, join an org! If you’re US-based, I recommend something like The Party for Socialism and Liberation. There are probably other orgs local to you, though, so do some shopping around. Getting organized is the only way out of this mess, and into the new. A better world is possible!
Most definitely have a lot of Leftist reading to do! If nothing else, I at least know I’m well Left of Center:))
Now that I’ve mulled it over some more, I think it feels very intentional to me because I do see a lot of similarities between it and Feudalism, yes! It’s like Capitalism is comprised of multiple smaller monarchies, referring to Corporations and any organisation/person with a large amount of capital at their disposal, and thus influence. But, yeah, we’re talking orders of magitude of complexity above traditional feudalism, so it would stand to reason that it’s most likely just a mathematical whirlpool of sorts. I do agree that capital is the main point of power in Capitalism and that everything else has formed around it.
Which, on a personal side note, is so sad when looking at the big picture! It means that the people in power aren’t actually driven by anything concretely Human™, so to speak, they’ve ceeded full control of themselves and their lives over to the accumulation of something entirely fictitious… It’d be lamentable if it wasn’t so damned dangerous…
Thank you so much for the reading list! It’s so nice to have a quasi-curriculum for these things! And I probably will drop a line or two once I get started with the reading! Truth be told, I’m at the point where I know enough to understand just how little I know about the subject, so I can’t even think of relevant questions at the moment. I’ve focused more on existential philosophy and such so far, needed to fix myself first:))
As for joining an org, that’s in my 2-year plan (life got upended, again, so it’s running alongside several other need-to-do stuff). I will lean very heavily into volunteer work, hopefully that’ll open up some political networks as well. If nothing else, it is urgently clear that it’s time to act as a citizen. Thank Christ we’ve managed to pull another 4 years of European Union (Romanian)… We have a lukewarm Centrist now, but at least it’s not a raging Fascist…
Yep! Marx himself said that the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles, after all. Feudalism does have a lot in common with capitalism, but what makes Marx interesting is how he analyzed how capitalism is different. Many leftists of his era were focused on the similarity between capitalism and feudalism, Marx focused on the opposite, how it’s different, and this is what propelled him into scientific socialism, socialism as it emerges from capitalism.
And no problem for the reading list! It’s designed to be completed in order, and is focused on taking someone freshly radicalized but with no experience with leftist theory, and leave them as someone with a firm grasp on the fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism and how to behave as an organized leftist! It also has audiobooks, queer and feminist theory, a good dose of basic history, and more. Since you mentioned philosophy, the 2nd section goes over Dialectical Materialism, so it might be a really good fit for you if that’s your current interest! Still read section 1 before 2, but 2 is a fun section once you get there!
And great to hear you plan on getting organized! Really, that’s step 1, but obviously not everyone can do so immediately due to life events and whatnot. Just do what you can!
Yep, that makes a lot of sense. I mean, it’s much easier to change things if said change is built upon what’s useful from the old. No use throwing out the things which actually do work (whether by design or incidentally, doesn’t matter, happy accidents are still happy), plus it has the added benefit of maintaining some degree of familiarity, so I would imagine that makes the pill easier to swallow.
I’ll most definitely take it in the order given, the new is always prioritised:)) Sounds delectably thorough, my brain will be happy, thank you! And, yeah, that’s pretty much the basis on which I’ve started pulling hard to the Left (used to be Undecided, a.k.a. I’m Severely Depressed And Don’t Have The Space For It). Existentialism steered me toward an understanding of what a satisfying life means for the human psyche, which then shoved me into “well, hey! Sounds like something which would be nice for everyone!” Then I finally saw the world for what it is and… yeah…
Completely agreed, change starts from home, always. It looks daunting, but the fact that so many people remember that Fascism is objectively bad, actually, means it’s not impossible.
Thanks so much once again, both for the resources and the conversation! And sorry again if I came off as hostile, I’ve been struggling to manage a hefty case of misanthropy for the past almost-decade.
No worries, and have fun with it! Feel free to ask any questions or give feedback for it if you want to. It’s also an intro list, there’s a ton you can read beyond it once you finish, but you should be able to figure out what you want to read when you finish it.
Awesome, thank you!❤️
Wish I was 20 again, miss pulling all-nighters reading without needing to recoup for half a year afterwards…