The collapse of the American empire would benefit almost every other country. I am starting to feel that since I live in America I should want to accelerate the collapse (or make sure one happens if things start to go back to business as usual). Can someone tell me why this is a bad idea so that I don’t make a mistake here.
I think we are digging in on nonissues now.
I’m right and you’re right too but we can’t agree on it.
I really enjoyed reading your text.
I think we agree that both praxis and theory are generally necessary, but we do have a disagreement about where knowledge begins and that’s no small matter. Knowledge beginning with experience is the materialism of the theory of knowledge. To reject that rational knowledge must be developed from perceptual knowledge is to give in to idealist thought
There is a reason Mao and Lenin and other revolutionaries bothered to discuss these things, and a reason we should as well. Criticism and self-criticism are vital, and as you said yourself “you need to accept being wrong as a Marxist.”
I’ll grant you that reading theory independently of practice gave me a little bit of a leg up. But compared to my comrades who jumped into organizing around the time I started studying? I’m still wet behind the ears
I’d also like to question why your first reaction to the notion of getting organized and putting theory into practice was to say that people shouldn’t be “running around in ‘leftist’ circlejerks.” Is that what you think organizing is? Do you have organizing experience? I wasn’t referring to a reformist party or a glorified newsstand/book club. I joined a revolutionary socialist organization, and they encouraged me to join a mass org that they had a unit in. A mass org that mobilizes the masses to take direct action to create real change; elaborating upon the conditions furnished by the lives of the working class to steadily improve the organization and preparedness of the masses. The only task worthy of a revolutionary, according to Lenin
If you took a moment and read a couple of my comments and posts you would know that I have experience in organizing. Many years in fact. The reason I stress this is because a lot of people actually organize everyday, just for the wrong reasons.
And accepting to be wrong does not mean accepting to be treated with arrogance, which is what this here is turning into.
Instead of boring down on a point like this, a good marxist would start asking questions which are not condescending. Like “what is your opinion on” or “how do you propose”.
So, as I said. I’m right and you’re right, just at different areas and from different viewpoints.
And leftist circlejerks is what I call deviationist/ultra groups, maoists one of the most annoying. They are totally obsessed with being right, yet are completely wrong in their execution.