From 8e72c89b47f3f9ca84f5cca4f15b7964c75abc8b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: jmcb Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2024 11:49:52 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Clean up folder structure --- _drafts/2023-04-04-script.md | 53 ---- _posts/2023-04-07-honesty-capitalism.md | 38 --- _posts/politics/2023-03-25-manifesto.md | 260 ------------------ .../2023-04-07-peace-violence-revolution.md | 13 - 4 files changed, 364 deletions(-) delete mode 100644 _drafts/2023-04-04-script.md delete mode 100644 _posts/2023-04-07-honesty-capitalism.md delete mode 100644 _posts/politics/2023-03-25-manifesto.md delete mode 100644 _posts/politics/2023-04-07-peace-violence-revolution.md diff --git a/_drafts/2023-04-04-script.md b/_drafts/2023-04-04-script.md deleted file mode 100644 index 042941e..0000000 --- a/_drafts/2023-04-04-script.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,53 +0,0 @@ -# Introduction to Politics - -Chapter 1: First Man / Man - -[Blank screen] If you wish to understand politics, you must first invent the human race. [Evolution montage] -Humanity was born about 700,000 years ago, probably in Africa. Over time, we became the dominant predator species on Earth, and eventually spread across the entire globe. -At this point, we were primitive hunter-gatherers, living in caves in families and tribes of maybe 50 people, hunting mammoths, bison, etc. -x years ago, something incredible happened. An explosion of technological development. [Image: timeline] -Some human realised that we didn't have to just eat the berries we were picking. We could put them into the ground, and they'd grow into a bush which would give us many more berries. This discovery probably happned in the middle east. -At this point, we stopped moving around so much, and started to invent things like ploughs and cities. -This gave birth to the first bona fide political system: feudalism. Small kingdoms started to form. -When you think of a king, you probably think of someone like the king of england. At this point, kingdoms would not be so large. Kings (and sometimes queens) would rule over cities or smaller territories. [Images: egyptian and european kingdoms coalescing]. -Over time, the kingdoms fought with one another. When one kingdom defeated another, sometimes they would form a new, larger kingdom, made up of territory of both the previous kingdoms. [Video: agar.io] -In Ancient Greece, political theorists first came up with the idea of Democracy. This political system was a good idea, but it would not be implemented worldwide until much later. [Image: those old guys having the big discussion] - -Chapter 2: Industry -In Britain, something incredible happened. The next big explosion of technology. The steam engine. We rapidly invented machines to producing clothes and travelling much faster. At the same time, Britain and other European civilisations set out across the world in great ships to "discover" new continents. On these continents they turned their kingdoms into empires, the largest empires in the history of humanity. - -At this point, the seeds of Democracy began to flourish. Revolutions and reform happened at the thrones of the empires. Later, the colonised peoples demanded democracy of their own, and became mostly independent. In this period a great deal more technological, scientific, and social development is happening. - -karl marx invents communism -forget to mention money - -Chapter 3: War -World War II was the largest conflict ever inflicted on the human race by itself. Fascism was defeated in Germany, Italy, and Japan by the mostly democratic allied forces. One of these allies was the Soviet Union, a large, recently formed nation which was trying out a new political system: communism. The USA, a capitalist nation, turns against their allies, beginning the Cold War. Communism fails and the country turns into the Russian Federation, a plutocracy. - -Chapter 4: Information -During WWII, humans invented an early kind of computer. They also invented nuclear bombs. Computers have developed rapidly into a brilliant new technology that has changed a lot of how we organise ourselves and how we make new progress. This brings us roughly to the present day, when I'm making this video: 2023. - -You might have noticed that the rate of development is increasing a lot. This is a worrying trend but I'm interested to see where it will go next. - -Chapter 5: Politics -In the present day there are a few main political ideas. [Image: political axis] -Fascism blames minority groups for problems in society. They want to murder those minorities for the alleged good of the rest of society. [Hitler, EDL, Proud Boys] -Conservatism wants to preserve society exactly how it is now, or in some cases regress back to how we were. [Whoever invented conservatism, conservatives, republicans] -Centrists want to do nothing. -Liberals want to arrange society by free trade and democracy. [Voltaire?, labour, democrats] -Since free trade and democracy are how we already arrange society, some people will group liberalism, centrism, and conservatism into the same category. -Communists want to abolish money, and corporations, and place all political power into the hands of common people. How this would be safely accomplished is not yet certain. - -Chapter 6: Future -[Image: timeline stretching out] -The future of politics is uncertain. The fact is, many of the problems in today's world are political in nature. Climate change is a major problem that could be solved by building much more solar power, wind power, and maybe nuclear power. This has not yet happened because fossil fuel mining companies want to keep making lots of money. People are homeless, but there are lots of empty homes. Homeless people haven't moved into the empty homes because landlords want to keep making lots of money. War is still happening, because people like Putin want to keep having lots of power. - -Full disclosure here, I am a communist and I made this video to try and spread my beliefs. I hope to see greater democracy and full equality in the world in the future. I believe this to be completely possible. Many people would disagree. Many think that capitalism is the end point of politics, and that we will keep using it forever. It's entirely possible that the nuclear weapons will wipe most of us out at some point. Hopefully that doesn't happen. In any case, I think political education and transparency is always a good thing, which is why I made this video. Let's all try to create the best future possible for ourselves, our children, and our childrens' children. - -information -acceleration -the major ideaologies from right to left -the future -narration inspiration: fred knudsen, that narrator from Denis Dune -politics is important -#leftism #politics #philosophy #communism diff --git a/_posts/2023-04-07-honesty-capitalism.md b/_posts/2023-04-07-honesty-capitalism.md deleted file mode 100644 index d9cb54f..0000000 --- a/_posts/2023-04-07-honesty-capitalism.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,38 +0,0 @@ ---- -title: It's Time to Start Being Honest About Capitalism -date: 2023-04-07 16:45:02 +0100 -tags: politics marxism communism anarchism hope -image: /assets/images/Pyramid_of_Capitalist_System.jpg -published: false ---- - - - -Capitalism is about to collapse. More and more people are waking up to this fact: it's inevitable. Capitalism as a way of organising society, is a system of constant growth, that is no longer sustainable. Ask a person on the street (where I live at least, in the UK) and they'll be more than likely to agree with this. Sometimes, criticising capitalism will have you met with jeers and mockery - mostly if you're in a social group with more privileged people - but by and large, the arguments made by anticapitalists are undeniable. - -Herein lies the problem: what's the alternative to capitalism? Ask an anticapitalist what they think the solution is. They'll probably be much less confident in their solutions than in their analysis of the problems. Now here's the kicker: the solution to Capitalism is Communism. This much is obvious. If not Communism, then something resembling Communism, Socialism, or Anarchism; probably with a Democratic bent. - -This is so obvious as a belief system, in fact, that it was inaugurated about 158 years ago, with the foundation of the International Workingmen's Association on the 28th September 1864, in London. At the inaugural meeting of this organisation was Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, as well as the much more well-known Karl Marx. Now Mr. Marx didn't know the future, because no one does, but most of his predictions have held up incredibly well. Karl Marx can easily be considered among the greatest philosophers of recent history, maybe even the greatest philosophers of all time. This brings me to my next point "Why don't people respect Karl Marx"? - -## Partisanship - -I recently read an issue of *Philosophy Now* which had a lot of rubbish articles and one on Karl Marx. This one article was the only mention of Marx in the entire paper. It was a childish takedown, written by a racist. Not exactly befitting the stature of a "respectable" magazine, or a great thinker like Marx. I'm now going to reveal the true title of this article: "It's Time to Start Being Honest About Communism". - -So here's what I think is the reason why people don't respect Karl Marx: Partisanship. Marx and his ilk had a lot of ideas, some of them good, some of them bad, but all of them were utterly terrifying to the rulers of the time, and they still terrify the rulers of the world today. For this reason they have been systemically suppressed by propaganda, both natural and intentional propaganda (Chomsky, 1988). I think it's time for society as a whole to wake up to the truth of communism. - -Unfortunately, communist political parties are basically nonexistent in Euroamerica at the moment. The utter disgrace of the Soviet Union, and the "war" that took place between it and the USA, provided perfect ammunition for the systematic suppression of communist ideas. This is why there are no communist political parties. Recently, the respectable UK liberal party Labour elected a new party leader named Jeremy Corbyn. He had a lot of excellent policy ideas which sparked a huge wave of political enfranchisement, especially in younger people. The USA had an equivalent, Bernard Sanders. Unfortunately they were systematically derided in the mainstream media (even "leftist" media) for such sins as riding "Mao-style bicycles \[sic\]". This is the greatest "Cancel Culture" that exists in our society - it's no longer ok to be a communist. - -So what do we do now? I think it's time for communists to come out of the woodwork en masse. Tens of thousands of people around the world are still hardcore believers in communism, with millions or even billions more ready to turn as soon as the spark is lit. It's time for every left-leaning person around the world to stand up and shout "I am a Communist!" The Internet provides the means for us to organise this action. I propose a date of 2023-05-01, the First of May. Once we declare our allegiance and bring communism into the public eye again, millions will join us. This is the strategy that the LGBT+ community invented with the Stonewall Rebellion: We're here, we're Queer, Put up with it. It's time for leftists to declare: We're here, we're Communist, Put up with it. - -The Plan -1. Tweet "#IamACommunist" - - This is the least you can do. Most people have a Twitter account already and if you don't have one already you can make one for free in five minutes. You can also post the same message on any other platform, or even yell it out in public if you have no self consciousness. -2. Arrange public demonstrations - - This part is key. Online demonstration is something, but also, twitter is bullshit. In-person demonstrations will be the most important part for the movement. Every left-learning organisation in the world should begin planning public protests for the 1st of May -3. Get ready to vote - -There is no other way we can win. Appealing to the moderate right has been an absolute failure: the press calls us communist, the moderates recognise that communism is bad, and fall back in line, voting for "sensible" parties. Once we declare our allegiance to Communism and Worldwide Human Rights, the press will be forced to fall in line for once. - -![An image for the embed](/assets/images/Pyramid_of_Capitalist_System.jpg) - -*Cartoon published by IWW, 1911, Public Domain* diff --git a/_posts/politics/2023-03-25-manifesto.md b/_posts/politics/2023-03-25-manifesto.md deleted file mode 100644 index 01aeb05..0000000 --- a/_posts/politics/2023-03-25-manifesto.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,260 +0,0 @@ ---- -title: Political Treatise -date: 2023-03-26 22:03:07 +0100 -tags: politics manifesto cw marxism communism anarchism hope -category: WIP -published: false ---- - -# The Guerrilla Education Manifesto - -## The sacred duty of the Educator, the Documentator, and the Archivist - -Everything that happens is a natural result of previous things - the process of cause and effect. Humanity hasn't just evolved from monkeys, it has also had a massive amount of cultural evolution. If everyone on Earth were to forget everything they know tomorrow, society would be changed. We would be left to re-learn everything from whatever we've written down. - -When a teacher passes on knowledge to their students, they are creating the next generation of society. This is a process that happens naturally, by socialisation, but we can also try to create systems that pass on knowledge as well as possible. - -When a person teaches, they often forget what it's like to learn. A lot of the academic world is more concerned with having fun amongst themselves than with passing on the baton of the profession as smoothly as possible to the new recruits who will replace them. - -I believe that more effort should be put into reforming terminology and teaching methods from the point of view of a new student. We must build systems of understanding and teaching that are effective but easy to pick up. For example, even if renaming theorems or chemical compounds is a hassle for established mathematicians and chemists, the benefit for learners outweighs the effort. - -Even the most experienced people are in a constant process of learning. Many great advancements have been made by students, often working with their tutors. The discovery of brand new information happens as a natural part of the process by which we teach known information to people who aren't aware of it yet. - -History is constantly being produced. Some of the most significant historical texts, such as Samuel Pepys' diary, would have been unassuming to their creators or other people of the time. From a "longtermist" perspective, we should focus on organising existing historical knowledge, as well as relevant cultural knowledge, into efficient databases. I expect the "wiki" model will have a big impact on the field of history, as well as other fields. - -## The failures of other movements - -This is the inevitable part of my manifesto where I spend my time complaining about other people's manifestos. - -Marxist-Leninists failed by attempting to pre-empt the progression of society. Their "Vanguard Party of the Revolution" doctrine casted them as saviours who would take their understanding of socio-economics and impose it on the human race by military force. Marx and Engels wrote predictions of the future of humanity, not instructions. - -Unfortunately, complex problems cannot have simple solutions, as a rule. You cannot build freedom by taking away freedom. It is absurd. Even if their desires to create a more fair world were valid, the systems they managed to create - the "Soviet Union" and the "People's Republic of China" - were not exactly perfect. - -For sure, the "revolutionary spirit" in Cuba is now mostly dead because it was never securely alive. It mostly existed as hero-worship for the people who fought for it, but now that they have failed or died, and the rest of the world has closed in with embargoes, people naturally no longer believe in the promises of their saviours.[^whoopsie] - -Continental Philosophers fail by making everything more complicated than it needs to be. They retreat into millions upon millions of words of very fancy sounding language. They might be having fun, but they aren't really helping to change anything. They spend their time debating each other over pedantic, tiny, "intellectual" issues. - -The thing to remember is that "Communism" isn't a cure-all. You can't just make a government, slap the word "COMMUNIST" on it, and expect that to fix everything. Likewise, communism is not just a set of ideas. Communism is just a theory, and like all theories it must be tested, implemented, and tweaked. - -## Emotion and Reason - -Human beings are emotional creatures, whether we like it or not. Rationality is our invention, but it doesn't necessarily come naturally to us. - -Some Thinkers will try to remove emotion from science and philosophy altogether. They try to act like the Vulcans (Mr. Spock) from Star Trek, try to become pure and unquestionable Knight-Philosophers of Reason[^discobaby]. Unfortunately, this seems to result in making arguments just as emotionally charged as others, but with more misplaced confidence. - -In my opinion, the best way to good outcomes is to stay humble and to follow the scientific method. The scientific method, like most things, is really incredibly simple in hindsight. "If you want to say something is true, check if it is true. (Then, whenever you get new information, check again. Repeat as many times as needed.)" Somehow, it took us tens of thousands of years to develop this method of *Empirical Falsifiability*.[^science] - -I think there are two reasons for this. One, it's hard to follow this method when you have absolutely no clue what to do to test an idea. We had to muddle around with mercury and sulphur in tubes, whenever we found the free time to do it, until we eventually stumbled on some good ideas. - -Two, because we didn't write things down enough. Now we have computers and the internet, the most effective machines for writing, typesetting, storing, and transmitting information ever invented, it's inevitable we'll be able to do better. - -Basically, let your emotions guide you - emotions like love of other people and hatred of injustice - and when your emotions don't line up with reality, use reason to guide them. - -## The role of comedy in politics - -**Content warning for this section: war, death, medical science, nuclear catastrophe, climate disaster, hate crimes, racism, sexual assault** - -Politics fucking sucks. People everywhere are hurting and dying. Soldiers bleed out in ditches. People are denied medical care and, in the course of trying to go about their day, lose their grip on consciousness and fall down to never wake up again. People in innocent marginalised groups are routinely abused, made to feel awful, and, in extreme cases, beaten and stabbed to death. - -Around the world there are hundreds of space rockets, magnificent works of engineering, turned to a twisted purpose. They carry bombs. Put together, all of these bombs are enough to blanket the surface of the entire planet multiple times over, and wipe out 99% of all plant and animal life. - -In this theoretical scenario, the survivors would be ridden with melted eyeballs, burns, chronic radiation syndrome, and other horrible injuries. They would eventually be able to rebuild, but it would take a thousand years of darkness. The only thing keeping us from this scenario is a process of checks and balances, big red buttons, and turned keys, a process, unfortunately, also designed by humans. - -I understand it poorly, but I know that the people at the highest levels of power in this process are people like Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, mad people who already send thousands to their deaths, in Ukraine and Iraq for example. - -Besides this theoretical scenario, atrocity on the scale of the entire Planet Earth is already happening. A rise in overall heat, leading to extreme high temperatures, low temperatures, and other dreadful weather effects, has already happened. It will take us decades to reverse this process in a best-case scenario. I think we're probably living in the fastest and messiest period of human history ever. When Genghis Khan took his reign of terror across Mongolia, at least the people on the other side of the world were none the wiser. These days, we can send messages across the globe in an instant, people across the globe in a day, empires and pollutants across the globe in only a few years. We have no choice but to come together and do better, or all die at once. - -The point is, politics is awful. To cope with this, many turn to ignorance and denial, or euphemism. "I don't know what you're talking about, I'm just not really a political person". "Climate change isn't happening at all". "Climate change will sort itself out". "Black people deserve to be enslaved, they are inferior". "Women who get raped are simply asking for it". People use phrases like "National Security" and "The Economy". - -Even when they acknowledge tragedies that happen, people simply decide that nothing can be done, and try to get on with their lives. But this is false. Things have got better, and they will continue to get better. Unfortunately, the first step to tackling a problem is to acknowledge it exists. You have to get a good look at the problem, understand it, and accept that it is real. Accept the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. - -When each of us is born, we are plunged into the universe as a whole, and deeper, into the Great Machine of Society. In this machine we are all cogs, wheels, pipes, wires, regulators, and other assorted doodads. No one chooses to be in this machine, but if we are lucky, we find a part of it we love, with other people we love, doing what we were made to do. But staring out at the Great Machine of Society in its current state and trying to grasp all of it is like staring at Cthulhu[^cthulhu] - you go insane. Politics is like an intellectual mirror maze full of emotional spike traps. - -All of this, and half the time, when you try to talk about it with anyone else, you just get into an argument over your preconceptions. People treat politics like a sports game of Political Party 1 versus Political Party 2, and if you really care about politics, you're seen as a weirdly devoted sports fan. - -Thankfully we have a bunch of coping mechanisms we can find to use. One of my favourite ones is comedy. Even if the issues are very serious, making light of them can make them much more tolerable. Also, fascists always want to be taken seriously, with their flat, grey, Hugo Boss[^hugoboss] uniforms and their goose-stepping[^goosestep]. If we treat the whole of politics as the joke that it is, we can speak truth to power more effectively. Taking things too seriously can be a plague, I think we all need to get a little silly sometimes. - -## The Manifesto - -In The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx defined the goal of Communism as "the abolition of private property".[^marx] This was apparently the best he could do. When you base your ideology on inflexible ideas like this, it's easy to be divided by opponents and by infighting. The political Right gets along fine because they agree with simple ideas like opposing change and hating on the same minority groups. - -I think what we need is a strong foundation we can agree on, to build the rest of our belief systems on. A place where we can draw the line and absolutely refuse to budge. The Scientific Method can't really be used to decide how much value a human life has, because that's a matter of opinion. We just have to pick something simple and intuitive that we can all agree on. - -I propose a new, universal, almost irreducible goal for Worldwide Communism: - -> Full human rights for every human being, without exception. -> -> This means every right, from the more well-defined ones to the vaguer ones - food, water, clean air, shelter, hygiene, healthcare, dignity, respect, freedom to work however much you want - for the good of yourself and each other, not bosses - freedom of movement, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from violence, freedom of love, creativity. -> -> These rights must be provided to every human being, utterly without exception - regardless of age, sex, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, disability, ability, neuro-divergence, body, appearance, where you were born, personality. -> -> This state of affairs is both necessary and fully achievable. - -Of course, I also believe in rights for other animals, and even plant life. In a really good world, it shouldn't be that hard to provide those rights too. Treating the environment right slots neatly into place together with treating each other right. - -The rights provided should cover the whole of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs[^maslow] and beyond. They must be provided regardless of whether you're rich or poor, and regardless of nationality, although those concepts, as we understand them now, doesn't really need to exist at all. - -Human rights must be provided regardless of whether you're a criminal or have done something wrong. To the best of my knowledge, crime can basically be sorted into two categories - what you're driven to do, and mistakes you make. - -No one will be driven to mug you for your purse if no one is lacking money to buy food and pay rent. People will always still make mistakes, but we can build a kind society where people care for one another, and everyone is told about the best methods to stay safe and protect others. Volunteer peacekeepers can help guide drunk partygoers home and break up fights - like police officers, but very different to the power-tripping pigs who are all too common. - -Even the rulers and enforcers who are oppressing humanity right now have to be provided rights, so far as that doesn't stop us from providing rights to everyone else. Guillotines are fun symbolism, but all life has value, even the lives of those who don't value life. - -The abolition of private property is a highly likely to be a required step. We have to try whatever is necessary to accomplish this - regulated capitalism, democratic socialism, minarchism, anarchism, libertarian socialism, state communism, collectivism, syndicalism - voting, due process, peaceful protest, riots, reading groups, armed revolution and mutual aid. We will apply the scientific method, common sense, spontaneous, natural kindness for one another, and centuries of hard work to build the best society possible. - -The names of ideologies are descriptive, not prescriptive. I do not know what the future will hold, but I know that it will be beautiful. - -## Guerrilla Education - -How do we make any of this happen? - -I think the only way is for everyone to understand it. Once a majority of people understand politics, it will be impossible to stop goodness from happening. There are too many homeless people, but also far too many empty homes. Poverty is a policy decision. - -This principle can be called *Class Consciousness*. However, it is often overlooked in favour of trying to rush through angry political upheaval. The road to a good world will be long and bumpy. - -Political thinkers often seem to hold the idea that everyone has the same knowledge, understanding, and goals that they do, committing the *Game Theorists' Fallacy*. Or, they do victim-blaming and blame people just for not understanding things that have never been properly explained to them. - -My thinking is very similar to original Marxism, which claims that technological development will inevitably lead to a change in society. In fact, by trying to make as much money as possible selling iPhones, rich people have given us the perfect tool to make art and spread insurrection. Even in the most oppressive regimes, blocks on free speech are easy to bypass if you know how. In less oppressive regimes, if they try to take away our freedom to read and write information[^restrictact], we will not take it sitting down. - -Case in point: apartheid emerald mine heir[^likeaminecraftvillagerlolhgnrghgnuhhhnhhhh] Elon Musk's takeover of social media platform Twitter[^twitter]. The people who rule the world are actually very, very stupid (strictly speaking, they're average intelligence, like we all are, but also they're disconnected from reality which makes a difference). While trying to satisfy his ego, he's made it more and more obvious just how stupid he is, plus he's pushed people to other, more free social media, and lost a massive amount of money. - -The main addition in my thesis is that society will change by cultural transmission as well as by the advancement of the means of production. This means less of a dedication to accelerationism, and more of an emphasis on love and education. - -So, everyone needs to understand politics. At the moment, this knowledge is mostly restricted to nutjobs like me who make it their hobby or their profession. There must be no more ordering people to read Marx. Political education should be spread in the most accessible but comprehensive forms possible. No oversimplifications (four legs good, two legs bad...[^thisislikegeorgeorwellsuhhbookninteeneightyfour]) but also no stupidly long and wordy books.[^morewell] - -In fact, Marx wrote that "The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living."[^nightmares] Literature is dead, once it is written down and finished, but society and the ideas that drive it are alive. Not to deny how informative and influential this writing is, Karl would have probably thought it was pretty funny how people still cling to the written word of his ideas. - -Since Communism was first thought of it has been spreading. In the 1900s, we tried to put it into place, and old men clinging onto their inherited power, plus naturally scared people fighting change, did their best to stop it. The rulers of the world have done their best to mislead and to propagandise us, to keep us in the dark. Comprehensive political education will almost never be put into place in primary or secondary schools, in mandatory education, because of the conflict of interest. The rulers of the world will never just tell you how to get your freedom, let alone give it to you. In fact, they won't even tell you you're not already free. - -But the revolutionary spirit is higher than ever.[^instinct] My generation was born and raised in a world with little hope. Nearly everyone can recognise the fundamental brokenness in society. We demand change. Fascism happens because we know something has to give but we don't know what. If "Communism has already failed and will never work", maybe getting rid of the Jews or the Transes will fix something? - -But hatred can never persevere. It is perverse to hate so much. It is not natural nor is it healthy. We have to offer real solutions that will work. The time will come to be communist in public again. Stand on the street like a Jehovah's Witness and tell people (as far as the law allows, or further if you have nothing to lose). Show people *Why Socialism?* by Albert Einstein[^einsten] - appeal to authority is always good. Hold classes in political science and philosophy in parks or whatever rooms you can book. Tell your family and friends. Above all, be kind to one another. Don't talk down to people for not understanding things. No one understands anything without it being taught to them, and bad, deeply held ideas are rife. Don't make spreading political education your entire personality, because it's unsustainable and unhelpful to the cause as well as yourself. Bear with each other and love one another. - -![cool propaganda][standfortheflag]{:width="50%"} - -*This is similar to the "Loud and proud" attitude that has done so much for the LGBTQ+ community. "We're here, we're queer, put up with it"* - -Video essayists, I urge you to give up some of your artistic integrity. Sometimes it's ok to tell people what conclusions you think they should draw. You don't *just* have to make videos on obscure TV shows, you know.[^obscure] Political opponents will call you a communist whether or not you say it out loud. You don't just have to make videos refuting bad ideas.[^soy] Spread good ideas and explain them as clearly as possible. - -Make videos and make radio shows and podcasts and fiction. Compromise your short term career for the long term good of all mankind. Most people now have phones in their hands that they can use to record, edit, and publish ideas for free. The obstacle is now to cut through the nonsense being made. Let others educate you, and educate yourself, and educate others. - -## Avoiding hypocrisy - -Thomas Jefferson and his co-authors wrote this[^america]: - -> We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. - -They wrote this and would not abolish slavery for another 89 years.[^abolition] The country they founded is now itself one of the greatest forces of oppression in the world, at the same time as it is a force of freedom. Being a hypocrite is inevitable. Liberals were once revolutionary but they are now hypocrites, because they cling onto their ideas in the face of their failure. When others are wrong, set them straight. When you are wrong, try to understand how you are wrong, and try to change. When power is wrong, dismantle it and build it back better. - -## Not everyone has to care - -Marx sat happily in his office doing opium with his best bud Angle and wrote about how pretty much every human being is oppressed. The people who best understand politics are often the privileged people who have lots of free time and resources to study it. - -I think the fact of the matter is that most people are just doing ok. In a society with an unfathomably large number of people (8,000,000,000 at the time of writing), there will be an unfathomably large number of people who are suffering. But most of the people are just ok. - -The important part is to help all of the people who are suffering, while harming the average person as little as possible. We can take the super-rich people who are not suffering at all and burn their yachts too if we want. Finally, when we build a good society for everyone, everyone will benefit, not just the people who are currently in poverty, but everyone. I firmly believe that even the current rulers of the world would be happier in a world where they have happy people all around them, instead of gold-plated caviar made and delivered by unhappy people. - -## Personal Hope and other activism - -When you believe in a positive future for humanity, you are already helping to create it. When you share your belief, you're helping even more. - -None of this should discourage you from taking part in other action whenever possible. I only focus so much on spreading belief and ideas because I think that is the very first, most necessary step. Joining a union, founding a union, protesting, organising, these are all great things to do that you can probably take part in right now. - -However, these opportunities are not always available. Often, the best thing you can do is *opportunism*. The best thing you can do is *be prepared* to act whenever the chance shows up. It's never practical to want to work all the time. This is especially true when opportunities to work are limited. Often, the best thing you can do is to take care of yourself and the people close to you first, in spite of the state of the world. When we have to work constantly to keep the heating on, it's hard to find time to relax, let alone fight back. But eventually we will take this vicious cycle and turn it into a virtuous cycle. - -> There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere -- Nelson Mandela - -Never lose hope just because we didn't finish the work yet. In fact, even in an ideal world, an unfathomably large number of people still means an unfathomably large amount of suffering. Some suffering can be a natural and healthy part of human life. Our objective is only to eradicate unjust, gratuitous suffering. The only alternative to that is a dystopia where we're all getting sprayed with drugs to make us insanely euphoric all the time.[^huxley] - -Never give up hope for a better world just because there are setbacks. Just because Corbyn or Sanders aren't head of state yet doesn't mean we're not going to make some change eventually. Abolishing monarchism and switching to democracy, abolishing slavery, abolishing apartheid, winning the vote for women: all of these things seemed impossible before we did them.[^impossibility] *We eradicated Smallpox*.[^smallpox] - -> It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life. -- Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard, written by Gene Roddenberry, David Kemper, and Melinda Snodgrass - -Already, as I write this, the people of France are in the government buildings[^marseillaise] and in the streets[^debout] to demand democratic process and rights for older people. In New Zealand, trans-positive counter-protestors gathered in the thousands to drown out hate speech and have a party afterwards. In the United States of America, activists have been fighting for two long years to slow authoritarianism and protect nature.[^copcity] Outside of my narrow Euro-american sphere of awareness (and inside it) hundreds of other fights take place every month. The fight for justice will go on for as long as humanity does. Even if the ruling class took up the impossible task of burning every piece of political theory and killing every opponent, the ideas of freedom would re-occur. - -Another thing to remember is that your wellbeing affects how you see the world, even more than the actual state of the world does. Personal positivity is always good for you, and good for the movement, because the healthier you are, the more you could contribute to the movement. It's entirely possible to be positive without being in denial. I call this *critical optimism*, but I'm sure the idea has already been described in plenty of other places, probably like Optimistic Realism/Nihilism or something. Self-improvement doesn't only have to be the realm of Jordan Peterson and grindset neoliberals: you can improve yourself and society, in tandem in a virtuous cycle. - -![Figure 2](/assets/images/manifesto/diagram.png){:width="50%"} - -*\*Not to scale* - -![Charmander][charmander]{:width="50%"} - -## Where to next - -I wrote this for myself and for people like me who have a general idea of the problems but lack hope and a coherent ideology. I wrote it as a therapy technique - to create an intellectual basis for optimism which would compound my emotional and physical wellbeing - and because I felt it was important. However, if you want to learn more, here's some further reading. - -The lack of a single mostly neutral source is one of the things that motivated me to write this, hoping someone will make or find one. When you Google "Introduction to Communism", or "Introduction to Politics", most of the sources will be heavily unprofessional, or biased, or unclear, or distracted. I feel like we need a single video to point back to, something that will do for politics as a whole what *Line Goes Up*[^nfts] did for NFTS. - -If you have more sources, especially if you created one, feel free to submit them and I'll add them. Feel free to make any other suggestions for changes too. - -For the premium books, look to your local libraries. If you can't find one there, maybe there's another kind of library that starts with "z" -### Introduction -All of these are fairly short and readable. -- *Are You An Anarchist? The Answer May Surprise You!* David Graeber, 2009 -- *The Californian Ideology*, Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron, 1995 -- *The Principles of Communism*, Friedrich Engels, 1847 - -### More theory -- *Bullshit Jobs* by David Graeber - published as a short essay you can read for free, and a long book you can buy - - - - - - -- *Cyber Communism*, Richard Barbrook, 2007 -- Older theory can have a lot of boring writing and a lot of stuff from the time it was written that doesn't matter any more, but it also has lots of important ideas - - *The Communist Manifesto*, Marx, Engels, and Samuel Moore, 1848 translated 1888 - - *The Conquest of Bread*, Petr Kropotkin, 1892 -- -- -- -- These podcasts are very funny and have lots of good ideas to learn. They generally have 50% free episodes and 50% paywalled. I use AntennaPod () to listen to them all in one place - - - - *Chapo Trap House* - - - - -- These video essayists are also great: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -### Hope -- The new *Star Wars* TV show was really well made and gave me the optimism and clarity I needed to write this essay. -- *Star Trek* is always good for a vision of a positive future -- *The Internationale* is a worldwide Communist anthem written by an Anarchist and scored by a Marxist, centuries ago. It's very positive and has been translated into basically every language. If your preferred language doesn't have a translation, try to make one! English version: Rendition of the original French version: - -[^discobaby]: Don't Google this phrase because I mostly ripped it off wholesale from Disco Elysium and you'll get spoilers. Play the game first. It could also basically fit into every category of the above [Where to next](#where-to-next) section -[^whoopsie]: -[^science]: -[^cthulhu]: *The CALL of CTHULHU*, Harry Potter Lovecraft, 1928 -[^hugoboss]: -[^goosestep]: -[^marx]: -[^maslow]: -[^likeaminecraftvillagerlolhgnrghgnuhhhnhhhh]: -[^restrictact]: -[^twitter]: -[^thisislikegeorgeorwellsuhhbookninteeneightyfour]: *Animal Farm*, George Orwell, 1945 -[^morewell]: -[^nightmares]: -[^instinct]: I.E., *Class Instinct* -[^einsten]: -[^obscure]: *RWBY Is Disappointing, And Here's Why*, hbomberguy, 2020. I didn't even watch this one because I don't care -[^soy]: *SOY BOYS: A MEASURED RESPONSE*, hbomberguy, 2018 -[^america]: -[^abolition]: Why does the USA get `.gov` anyway?? Give yourselves `.gov.us` or something. wankers -[^huxley]: -[^marseillaise]: *French MPs sing Marseillaise and boo as PM forces through pension reform bill*, Guardian News, 2023 -[^debout]: *King Charles's France visit postponed after pension protests*, BBC, 2023 -[^copcity]: -[^impossibility]: *DS9 Season 6 Extras - Far Beyond the Stars*, Avery Brooks/Paramount Television, 1998 -[^smallpox]: -[^nfts]: *Line Goes Up – The Problem With NFTs*, Folding Ideas (Dan Olson), 2022 - -[charmander]: https://i.redd.it/laq9s2qvk5b81.png -[standfortheflag]: https://i.redd.it/zcdxy3p96cqa1.jpg diff --git a/_posts/politics/2023-04-07-peace-violence-revolution.md b/_posts/politics/2023-04-07-peace-violence-revolution.md deleted file mode 100644 index b84ae2a..0000000 --- a/_posts/politics/2023-04-07-peace-violence-revolution.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,13 +0,0 @@ ---- -title: Peace, Violence, and Revolution -date: 2023-04-07 18:14:30 +0100 -published: false ---- - -Throughout history the relationship between peace and violence has been hotly debated. Everyone agrees that peace is generally good and violence is generally bad. However, many have argued that violence can be necessary to create peace. Many peaceful philosophies have employed "warrior monks" to protect their fragile peace. This was necessary because they couldn't spread general peace across the entire world yet: they didn't even know the size of the entire world at that point. They were forced to create their little pocket of peace and protect it by learning to practice violence, in case violence ever became necessary. - -In 2023, we now stand on the precipice of World Peace. We know how big the world is, we know most of the stuff in it, and the wars currently happening are actually quite small (albeit horrible). This brings me to the point of this article: violent revolution is no longer at all necessary to create world peace. In the most developed and rich areas, power has nominally already been placed in the hands of the people who live there. Once the idea of communism is widely accepted, it will be implemented in these societies via the existing democratic government. - -From there, peace will spread organically to the less developed nations. The limited wars that are currently happening have been allowed to happen because of 1. autocratic tyranny e.g. Vladimir Putin's Russia and 2. secretive capitalist interference e.g. George Bush's CIA. Autocratic tyranny will be abolished soon; secrecy has already been abolished, take Chelsea Manning or Edward Snowden for example. - -For this reason the only revolution that is needed is Social Revolution. I believe that peaceful revolution is more effective for creating a paradigm shift (Jesus of Nazareth, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) whereas violent revolution is more effective for eradicating a tyrant class that refuses to let go of its power (The French Revolutions). Social revolution is best achieved with pacifism, since it gives the enemies of the revolution zero ammunition to use against them. The ruling class of the developed nations no longer has the power to violently cling onto their position. The greatest power our ruling class has is the police force; a police force for which trust is already at an all-time low due to incidents like the murder of George Floyd and the Casey report on the Met. If the ideas are correct and the methods are peaceful, the opponents of the revolution will have absolutely no choice but to yield; then, fighting around the world will be over.