I just got around to reading the communist manifesto and was surprised by the fact that it doesn't actually advocate for getting rid of money. It includes steps like having a very progressive tax, abolishing inheritance, and nationalizing banks but those all presume that there will still be money.
It then says that it will take multiple generations under these conditions for the idea of money to disappear and it will happen naturally.
I was also surprised to see that there's a similar argument for property. That it advocates for seizing private property (which has a particular definition in the book) but says other forms of property can be kept around and will only be abolished naturally in a few generations.
Honestly it was in a little free library box and I figured I sympathized in theory but I had never actually read the book. The actual manifesto is super super super short. More than half the book was prefaces from various authors (including Marx and engels) and it was still one of the shortest books I've read this year.
A lot of the "communist canon" is made up of 50 - 70 page long pamphlets. Basically long enough to read in one or two sitting, and then discuss with other workers since reading circles were really popular during the early communist movement.
Glad you found it! Makes me wanna carry some copies around with me to put into little libraries!
A few pamphlets I'd recommend would be Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, which is about Historical Materialism, Wage Labor and Capital which is a brief primer on Marxist economics, and The 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon which is about the ascention of Louis Napoleon in France and incidentally contains about half of Marx's most famous quotes. It also describes conditions where the liberal democracy that was won decades earlier started backsliding into authoritarianism and semi-feudal social relations, and echoes many of our current conditions.
The anarchists in Spain did that about a 100 years ago.
Orwell wrote a book about fighting in the war with them. The actual people who did it can be watched in color on youtube. Its quite good / entertaining watching them explain how they were against all vices but found themselves in the position of giving out free cigarettes and alcohol.
Do tell, liberal - is it your own right-wing ideology you do not understand? Or is it that you understand neither your own ideology or anything that can be called leftist with a straight face?
You can tell this is a leftist community because 1/4 of the time there's someone in the comments calling half of leftist ideologies libs, based solely on the fact that they kinda don't like them.
21 Comments
PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@anarchist.nexus · 24 pts · 72d
Donkter@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 72d
I just got around to reading the communist manifesto and was surprised by the fact that it doesn't actually advocate for getting rid of money. It includes steps like having a very progressive tax, abolishing inheritance, and nationalizing banks but those all presume that there will still be money.
It then says that it will take multiple generations under these conditions for the idea of money to disappear and it will happen naturally.
I was also surprised to see that there's a similar argument for property. That it advocates for seizing private property (which has a particular definition in the book) but says other forms of property can be kept around and will only be abolished naturally in a few generations.
Juice@midwest.social · 1 pts · 72d
Awesome, why did you decide to read it?
Donkter@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 72d
Honestly it was in a little free library box and I figured I sympathized in theory but I had never actually read the book. The actual manifesto is super super super short. More than half the book was prefaces from various authors (including Marx and engels) and it was still one of the shortest books I've read this year.
Juice@midwest.social · 5 pts · 71d
A lot of the "communist canon" is made up of 50 - 70 page long pamphlets. Basically long enough to read in one or two sitting, and then discuss with other workers since reading circles were really popular during the early communist movement.
Glad you found it! Makes me wanna carry some copies around with me to put into little libraries!
A few pamphlets I'd recommend would be Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, which is about Historical Materialism, Wage Labor and Capital which is a brief primer on Marxist economics, and The 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon which is about the ascention of Louis Napoleon in France and incidentally contains about half of Marx's most famous quotes. It also describes conditions where the liberal democracy that was won decades earlier started backsliding into authoritarianism and semi-feudal social relations, and echoes many of our current conditions.
alapakala@quokk.au · 11 pts · 72d
It's Facebook/Meta.
Is OP expecting doctors there?
adminofoz@lemmy.cafe · 7 pts · 72d
Yall don't want to abolish money?
The anarchists in Spain did that about a 100 years ago.
Orwell wrote a book about fighting in the war with them. The actual people who did it can be watched in color on youtube. Its quite good / entertaining watching them explain how they were against all vices but found themselves in the position of giving out free cigarettes and alcohol.
Dont be so lazy or small minded.
bl4ckp1xx13@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 72d
A404@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 72d
Guys, can we go easy on the lib-jacketing please?
ironycanal@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 71d
What a curiously liberal thing to say.
irelephant@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 72d
State of tiktok in the big 26
therealdries@lemmy.dbzer0.com · -2 pts · 72d
Nobody on the left gives a flying fuck about "taxing the rich."
That's a purely liberal pretend-solution.
4am@lemmy.zip · 12 pts · 72d
Oh really? Do tell, what does a true Scotsman actually want?
ironycanal@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 71d
Right now? Really good hash browns and to share her toothbrush with a cute NB who's on the wrong continent.
therealdries@lemmy.dbzer0.com · -1 pts · 72d
Do tell, liberal - is it your own right-wing ideology you do not understand? Or is it that you understand neither your own ideology or anything that can be called leftist with a straight face?
Or is it a question of both?
ironycanal@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 71d
Understanding is subversive. Not allowed. One must only identify and dunk upon.
A404@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 72d
They are asking the billionaires to tax themselves
Fifrok@discuss.tchncs.de · -2 pts · 72d
You can tell this is a leftist community because 1/4 of the time there's someone in the comments calling half of leftist ideologies libs, based solely on the fact that they kinda don't like them.
therealdries@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 12 pts · 72d
Since when does "half of leftist ideologies" fetishise private ownership over the means of production?
a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 72d
I know it is naughty, but it is the only way I can get off these days.
Fifrok@discuss.tchncs.de · -1 pts · 72d
This is the same level of "half" as the "nobody" in the comment I replied to, hope this helps