Lefty/lit/

Kinda new to the hard left. I've read the Communist Manifesto and the bread book. Where do I go from here?

Other urls found in this thread:

libcom.org/library/capitalism-communism-gilles-dauve
edensauvage.wordpress.com/2016/07/25/reading-list-for-aspiring-ultra-lefts/
theanarchistlibrary.org/library/voline-the-unknown-revolution-1917-1921-book-one-birth-growth-and-triumph-of-the-revolution
theanarchistlibrary.org/library/voline-the-unknown-revolution-1917-1921-book-two-bolshevism-and-anarchism
theanarchistlibrary.org/library/voline-the-unknown-revolution-1917-1921-book-three-struggle-for-the-real-social-revolution
books.google.mv/books/about/Lenin.html?id=MElIeaDUNm8C&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y
books.google.mv/books/about/Lenin_Rediscovered.html?id=8AVUvEUsdCgC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
twitter.com/AnonBabble

i swear im not dumb just lazy

State and Revolution as well as some foundational Marxist texts like Value, Price and Profit. Also Wilde' Soul of Man under Socialism essay is short and great for getting pumped up.

Depends entirely on how authoritarian or libertarian you are.

Though either way I'd suggest reading more Marx, because the Manifesto doesn't give Marx any justice.

this

volume one of capital is infinitely more important than the communist manifesto ever was

Go to the stickied reading list thread.
But first, delete your thread.

Read Capital by Marx and Debt: the first 5000 years by Graeber.

fuck, forgot to take off shiposting flag

read the capital, cant stress this enough.

...

You need to start with the soft left. You'll die just jumping in willy nilly without the correct knowledge.

...

Next Revolution by Murray Bookchin desu

The first is classic Marx and not too long. The second is shit people constantly recommend but I've never read. And the third is great at BTFOing ancaps with their own ideology.

Heroic dose of psilocybin mushrooms.

Fuck the prole life.

Plato sucks dude, don't read that shit, it will literally make you stupider.

t. sophist

The Communist Manifesto, while a semi-decent introduction to the most basic concepts of Marxism, lacks depth (alongside most the political program it advocates for being outdated within a few years of the piece being written). The obvious and most important work of Marx you'll want to read is Capital, but it would be understandable if you decide to put it off until you get some other works under your belt. Wage Labour and Capital runs through a lot of the points that Marx would later expand on in Capital, so that probably coupled with Critique of the Gotha Program is probably a good start for Marx if you don't feel like going through the entire list provided.
If you're looking for something more on the anarchist side of things, continuing with Kropotkin in Mutual Aid would be a safe bet, otherwise Anarchism and Other Essays by Goldman, God and the State by Bakunin, or What is Property? by Proudhon.

The pain is real

solid fiction literature is out there too

I doubt any of you have read Capital.

Why you got to remind me man? All of Cynicism's works are lost, and Zeno is barely a Cynic.

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn.
First as Tragedy, Then as Farce by Zizek.
Violence by Zizek.
Rousseau.
The Coming of the French Revolution by Georges Lefebvre.

...

I listen to audiobooks. They are great for retards without attention span.

...

don't read bookchin, ok?

I feel like I have seen this exact thread many times before this

Gib me monies for knowledge.

I read it in philosophy class. I didn't like it at all, it just keeps going about the same idea which is that every one should just stick to one job let the "intelectuals" (plato and friends) rule and form a dictatorship of the most capable.

Don't read it expecting to find a socialist points. Plato was unabashedly an aristocrat who hated democracy. It's definitely worth reading his critiques of democracy, because they seem to form the ideology of late capitalism. People are too stupid to govern themselves, should be left to the professionals etc. etc. These arguments really first appeared in Plato, so its worth looking at them there.

But aside from all that, read Republic for the questions and the counterpoints. Plato always has Socrates talking with some bozo or another as a way of elucidating his points. Understanding what Plato thought of as challenges to his ideas through these characters is really interesting. My favourite is Thrasymachus' challenge to Socrates, which is never fully resolved.

Do you mean the part where Thrasymachus calls him a sophist and they then engage in a conversation about justice, where the first's position is essentially 'might is right'?

It is an interesting book but thick to read.

Yeah that's exactly the part. In my opinion actually, modern ethics is really still dealing with exactly that objection. On top of that, how can we insist on an ethical world when we still act (especially on the international stage) as if Thrasymachus was absolutely right (imperialism, Hobbsian realism, realpolitik, etc.).

So I think there's a lot in Republic that bears thinking about seriously, even if Plato is essentially a technocrat. Plus, understanding Aristotle is 100% based on a good understanding of Plato. Personally I'm of the opinion that reading the greeks is imperative to any socialist. Looking at how ideas were presented and dealt with in ancient productive modes, and then how those ideas were interpreted in still other productive modes is key. It adds a necessary element of historicity into the way we think about things, which prevents us from believing in the 'End of History' meme, which many of us do, even if only implicitly.

Go back in time and unread the manifesto

One of the things that are also interesting about the book is also the parts where Socrates speaks about music and extends its meaning to speech, even though that part would be easier to understand by someone with knowledge of music theory.

I'm almost halfway through it myself but the parts where he and Glaucon (I think) talk about the parts of the soul, spirit, desire and reason make me think that Freud perhaps took a little from this book, Oedipus being very obviously something from the Greeks as well. And yes, I have to agree that even if you disagree with them (this is unavoidable), reading the classics is still a good thing to do because after all materialist philosophy wouldn't exist without its counterpart.

libcom.org/library/capitalism-communism-gilles-dauve

Try this, OP (or anyone else)

Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher.
Critique of the Gotha Programme, and Wage Labour and Capital, by Karl Marx.

Then choose whatever interests you edensauvage.wordpress.com/2016/07/25/reading-list-for-aspiring-ultra-lefts/

I´m hijacking this thread to ask for a recommendation. I have read China Mieville´s October and I´m curious if anyone has any more good books about the russian revolution. Preferably sympathetic to leftism and not called shit like ¨the peoples tragedy.¨ thx fam

sorry flag

theanarchistlibrary.org/library/voline-the-unknown-revolution-1917-1921-book-one-birth-growth-and-triumph-of-the-revolution
theanarchistlibrary.org/library/voline-the-unknown-revolution-1917-1921-book-two-bolshevism-and-anarchism
theanarchistlibrary.org/library/voline-the-unknown-revolution-1917-1921-book-three-struggle-for-the-real-social-revolution

If you can slog through a bit of academic jargon, Lars T. Lih's books on Lenin are the most well researched and accurate representation of Lenin in my opinion.

That is "Lenin" and "Lenin Rediscovered".
books.google.mv/books/about/Lenin.html?id=MElIeaDUNm8C&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y
books.google.mv/books/about/Lenin_Rediscovered.html?id=8AVUvEUsdCgC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

Most recent one aside from China's is Neil Faulkner's 'A People's History of the Russian Revolution'. It's a bit better than China's, but obviously quite similar (they're both Trots).

Don't listen to these people, Capital is a terrible place to start learning about Marxism.

These people have the right idea, they're musch better texts to begin with.
Also, if you're interested in Stirner just bloody read him, the last thing we need is another self proclaimed 'egoist' who doesn't even understand the concept of spooks

Debt - The First 5,000 Years (attached)

It was published in 2011, so it's not some dry old tome awkwardly translated from German 1,000 years ago. It's an enjoyable read, and does a good start at deprogramming capitalism. It will reveal and erase many internalized assumptions about society and history that living in capitalist society instills.