Introducing someone to Marx

A friend of mine told me he wanted to read Marx and asked if I had any recommendations. I'm sorry to dissapoint the leftcoms but I'm not gonna get him to read all of capital, just the essentials. I was thinking of
I left out the manifesto on purpose because the theory in it is weak and the 10 planks are stupid.
Any suggestions?

Other urls found in this thread:

gary.tedman.pagesperso-orange.fr/index.htm!)
twitter.com/NSFWRedditVideo

Don't introduce them to Marx or even Marxism. Introduce them to the same thing Marx did that isn't entirely fucking unique to him at all: ask them, assuming they are workers, to describe what their daily life looks like and press on points that either mystify or obscure something underneath the surface. This quasi-Socratic method of discourse itself will lead to conclusions that will interest them in Marx or anyone else that could further theoretically expand upon their newly acquired desire to ruthlessly critique (the essence of Marxism). You're not there to patronize or take them for incurable fools who need the meds (*cough* guess why communists tend to like Lacanian psychoanalysis rather than psychiatry).

One of the major things leftcoms historically emphasize is that Marx and Capital aren't some holy science inaccessible to le dumb prolz, but that they merely present a work that describes reality as it truly is beyond the mystifications of the ruling ideology. Of course it's useful to read Capital if you want a good piece of text going into that, but don't go around like a Jehovah's witness selling the immortal science of Marxism-Leninism-Jesusism. Rather, you should respond to existing anger where it already exists: tail it and aid it, not hijack and indoctrinate it.

When I tell someone to read Marx and Capital, I tell it to them because they pretend like they know it all, like they're precisely the type above with their own personal brand of immortal science going around not inculcating the desire to ruthlessly critique from society as it already is, but presenting them with a piecemeal of utopian blueprints.

That's exactly what I did though. I never told my friend he should read Marx, he just asked me if I could give him a list.

Then excuse my autism Re: "educating" but consider it an important thing nonetheless.

If someone literally walks up to you and says "I want to read Marx, gimme" they've likely investigated reality themselves and then you can just give them what they're clearly asking for. My personal recommendations would then be:
>Paris Manuscripts (give them this cool hypertext version if they're OK with reading on a computer screen: gary.tedman.pagesperso-orange.fr/index.htm!)

I've only read Wage-Labor and Capital, but everything else looks good. Wage-labor and Capital is extremely insightful and very easy to read.

His friend specifically asked for Marx, this isn't about conversion. You're coming across as very pretentious and oppositional, tbh.

I manged to talk to a lolbertarian yesterday about Marx in a civilized way by talking about Superstructure and Base.

this

He's already interested in Marx you fucking idiot. Read the OP

You realize this is not how human communicate, right? Like, if someone asks me for a book of a specific author, you answer that fucking question.

See:

...

I think this list is good. I might swap Critique or VPP for his 1st Philosophic Manuacript of 1848. Super underrated work. Critique is kind of very specific in a historical context and only really important once u begin to identify as a leftist, and TBH I didn't gain much from VPP beyond it being just a slightly more complicated version of Wage labor and capital, and his language in it is rather convoluted and overly verbose. Since u are dropping the red pill on this guy, I think his 1st Philosophic manuscript is more useful

even tho ur sperging was misplaced very good post nonetheless

I know I said in the OP "not all of capital" but even the first chapter is a fucking lot. I'd rather recommend a bunch of short essays.


or I could, you know, recommend stuff written by Marx himself


Which one's that?

if they are unfamiliar with his work it helps to have a solid intro to his ideas before digging into it first hand. Marx is boring as fuck and incredibly dry. If you have a solid understanding of basic ideas this is a good introduction.

This book is also great and is a good companion as it has all the in depth important excerpts of all his major works:

What are you talking about? I like reading him BTFO people like weston and lassalle.

I posted (in order) other text you should start with, including a really short one's really short first chapter, which recquires almost nothing else. The critique of Feuerbach basically shows the core of Marx's views as he built them upon his, which is why I think it's the place to start.

Intro:
Bourgeois and Proletarians chapter from The Communist Manifesto

Basig egonomiggs:
Wage Labour and Capital
Value Price and Profit

Gommunism:
Critique of the Gotha Programme
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (best book on Marxism)

This entire list is pretty short and can be done in 1 week. After this he can determine if he likes Marx or not.

He is one of the best insulters in western though. There's that line in Capital where he absolutely mauls both Jeremy Bentham and the eternal anglo

Love that one

Looks like Marx was redpilled on 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧them🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

Bump cuz good thread.


Thanks.

Why do leftcom post always seem the most educated like they actually read theory

Holy fuck

Good point. It's like introducing someone to philosophy by handing them Spinoza's Ethics. The strength of Marxism is that by being right, it's very easy to explain the world surrounding us and how people continuously get fucked over by the rich. Wherever you look at, you can see countless signs of oppression. Class consciousness isn't a meme.

What does user think of David Harvey's companion to Capital?

I like Heinrich's "An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Marx’s Capital" more

...

Fuck that: Show'em Sorel instead!