When I heard I could pick Historical Materialism as a subject I daydreamed for hours of delivering a well-researched and persuasive exposition on Marxist ideas for nearly a hundred people.
Now, due to a combination of my autism, my lack of self-discipline, my inarticulateness and the stubbornness of my colleagues we'll probably say something High School-tier based on the Manifesto that most people will already know, and nobody will even pay attention to. Shit sucks.
Do your presentation on the dialectics of Holla Forums memes within the framework of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist-Juche-Unruhe-NAZBOL thought.
Honestly, it would make about as much sense to people as anytime I try to talk about Marxist concepts I've known for years and read quite a bit about.
Go back, edit it now. Work all night on it. Do it, faggot.
Quit being a lazy piece of shit and make something good.
how are you inarticulate
literally just memorize the kind of things you say online/written down and say them out loud
I should have done that before, now but it's too late.
The problem is, it's a group project, so when I mention my horrible communication skills it's not the presentation itself I'm concerned about.
In my country, particularly among leftists, "Marxism" is a term dropped vaguely to mean anything remotely progressive. When we picked up this project and sat down to discuss it, everyone immediately started bringing up some ideas that are trendy in the social justice universe, but completely unrelated to Marxism, and trust me, this isn't just me being pedantic. I can't convey to anyone living outside of South America how diluted this concept has become among our progressive circles, and you'll usually hear a conversation about Marx followed by talks of astrology or yoga or something like that.
I then decided I'd explain what Marxism really is to every one of them, not only because it's the worldview I adhere to, but also because it's very relevant to our field, and then together we'd make something decent for the rest of the class. And in preparation I actually did a lot of reading, but my clumsy and ineloquent attempts to explain historical materialism, dialectics and the little of Marxist political economy I know were just met with blank stares and awkward silences. I'd say something, people would nod, and then everyone would just look down until someone changed the subject back to Slam Poetry or whatever, and they'd start talking again. Sometimes I'd try to sperg out what a materialistic analysis of those things could look like, see if I could get them to see things a bit this way, after all the topic itself is not important as long as it is subjected to Marxist framework, but I'm too much of a fucking moron to convey what that is, and only created more confusion.
Eventually they learned to just ignore me and we now have a few vague ideas of "class struggle" on paper to read, which I assume they'll use as a way into talking about all the trendier progressive causes these days. I plan to just sit down and say nothing.
Define exactly what Marx does and doesn't mean by social classes.
I mean the issue is that they'll apply his analysis to places where they shouldn't because they don't understand what he meant by 'class' right?
Make it as succinct as possible. If you draw it out and add a lot of shit, you will likely trip over yourself.
Historical materialism is easy as fuck to explain though. Marxist economics is impossible for non-autists to understand though.
OK whatever.
The single post that destroys Holla Forums since what's the motivation against laziness if everyone is going to take care of each other anyway.
Christ
I did the same thing, but I actually did a decent job. My presentation wasn't a group project, but a lecture for a university. I study philosophy and sociology (inb4 shit major), and the professor teaching my social and political philosophy course said, in a conversation on the upcoming Marx and Engels lecture, that I probably understood the material better than she does.
She then offered to let me teach the next class, for which I would have to create a lecture and presentation.
The course period ran long enough that I guess she figured if I did a shit job she would still have time to teach the necessary material. However, after my lecture the professor said I did a good job and covered everything. Pretty much just had a class discussion to clarify and go back to certain things with the last of the time.
files are my notes and presentation, mostly stuff from "Socialism: Utopian and Scientific" cus I had it on hand. Obviously they are not exhaustive of the lecture material, as you can tell they serve more as outlines for making points, but they give a good enough picture.
Why?
This is one of the few times I can genuinely say this. Congratulations man.
If you don't already understand Marxism enough to give the presentation you would like, that means you need to take your revolutionary studies more seriously.
Dude what. I could give you a presentation going over historical materialism from the top of my head and all ive done is spend 3 years shitposting on leftypol. I never even got halfway through kapital.
Well, you're fucking going down, so at least enjoy it.
Spend your lecture time shitposting like you do here.
Throw some memes, discuss stuff unironically, laugh at reactionaries, someone says stupid point, yell "google bookchin".
Most of the time, these presentations are stupid and inaccurate, the best you can do is to pique some interest on your take on the subject. Then with more time, on a more flexible setting, you can relay your points.
thank you satan
This, it's extremely difficult to remember a complex train of thought without having spent years talking about it, or having it on script.