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Chavista Club World • Page 4

Discussion in 'Politics Forum' started by Wharf Rat, Mar 6, 2016.

  1. Dominick

    Prestigious Prestigious

    Althusser rejects alienation. He sees it as a remnant from Hegel, which is rooted in a bourgeois perspective. It says there is an essence that isn't what it should be under capitalism. That isn't a materialist analysis of humanity. We know humans are productive, need clothing, food, housing, etc. But, there isn't anything inherent in us that is alienated under capitalism; rather, we are subjects constituted in the age of capital's supremacy and act in such and such a way. Further, what Althusser says is ideology has no history and there is no outside of ideology. The meaning behind this is, all human behavior is always-already ideological and always has been. In antiquity, there were different forms of ideology, but they functioned the same; that is, to produce subjects that recognize themselves in the status quo, i.e., in terms of their relationship to the dominant mode of production. The same is true across the different modes of production and peoples. Marginalized people are not exempt from ideology, as we've seen with people like Ben Carson or Obama. Even something like Black Lives Matter is, in many ways, linked up with the dominant ideologies. So, even in the position of being oppressed, ones recognizes their identity of an oppressed person with their relationship to capital. I mentioned BLM. They might say we need more black cops or we need more access to capital, none of which breaks the fundamental death grip capital has on the black body; their reforms are firmly within the confines of what ideology permits. All it is asking for is to be permitted to be integrated in a different way into the capitalist system. I don't think this is possible, but nevertheless, it speaks to my point. Even within a communist society, we will have an ideology. The ideology is based on workers democracy, which creates a wholly different subjective experience and understanding of ones relationship and place within the communist mode of production, and society more generally. I guess the better way to think about it is like socializing kids. We've always been doing it. The difference in communism is, we are reproducing the conditions of free, actually existing, democratic control for the vast majority of the people over their labor, what they produce, how they produce and how to distribute it in an egalitarian manner. This is objectively better, so there isn't a need to appeal to some alienated essence. Does that make sense? I fear I'm not being too clear. Haha.
     
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  2. Wharf Rat

    I know a little something you won't ever know Prestigious

    Right okay. Yes, that makes a lot of sense. I imagine its hard to be "clear" with anything that starts in Hegel. Lol. But yeah I have a much better understanding now.
     
  3. Dave Dykstra

    Daveydyk

    So just to see if I understand this (while not having read a lot of the ideologies mentioned, a lot of this can be hard to decipher) When you are born into a capitalistic society, capital becomes what you base your world off of. You basically are raised into a system that bases your worth off of your capital accumulation, so you base everything on that as well. Even actions that don't seem to have anything to do with capitalism, usually in some way are subconsciously. If you are never introduced to the idea of capital, it will never be a concern to you, and you will base your worth more on how you positively impact society. Like I said, without a solid background on the history of all this and all the names mentioned, it's a little hard to understand. Just tried to phrase it in the way I interpreted it.
     
  4. Dominick

    Prestigious Prestigious

    To break it down more simplistically. We live in a capitalist society. It is made up of institutions and actions, inserted into ideological practices, that create "normal" people that act in such and such a way to be considered normal and adhere to what is represented to them as the reality or truth of the world. These performances or normative behavior correspond to the reproduction of our capitalist world. How we think of ourselves, how we act in this world, what we do with one another, etc., is always already ideological. If we changed the bases on which we organize society, it would necessarily give birth to a different subjectivity and actions, which would correspond to that world.
     
  5. Dave Dykstra

    Daveydyk

    Ok perfect thank you. That is what I was trying to say basically, but your summary is much better. Thanks for the info.
     
  6. Trotsky

    Trusted

    Last month, I read a work by Althusser. Perhaps some of it went over my head or through my ears, but I was very disappointed.
     
  7. Trotsky

    Trusted

    Also, this post is insanely enlightening
     
    thenewmatthewperry likes this.
  8. Dominick

    Prestigious Prestigious

    What did you read? Anyway, he is not for everyone. I have found his understanding of ideology and the structures of dominance very helpful in understanding political phenomena.
     
  9. Trotsky

    Trusted

    For Marx
     
  10. Letterbomb31 Jun 1, 2016
    (Last edited: Jun 1, 2016)
    Letterbomb31

    Trusted Prestigious

    Documentary about Jeremy Corbyn, the socialist leader of the Labour Party in the UK:

    Jeremy Corbyn: The Outsider | VICE News

    Edit: eh, after watching it, I feel like they only focused on the negative. Didn't really mention any of his achievements since becoming leader. I've already noticed some people criticising Corbyn's view of the media presented in this documentary, but this is the kind of thing he has to deal with - The Tory election fraud scandal reaches fever pitch, so BBC Newsnight attacks Corbyn instead (VIDEO) | The Canary
     
  11. Dean

    Trusted Prestigious

    He does face a hell of a lot of genuine bias, but it also seems like there have been some genuine, pretty fundamental misjudgements on that side of things as well. Even if the deck's stacked against him most of the time I don't think there's anything wrong with holding him to a higher standard the chances he/his staff do get to engage - rightly or wrongly it is something he probably should be better at as a party leader.
     
  12. Letterbomb31

    Trusted Prestigious

    Corbyn made a great speech on the EU referendum yesterday and all the media reported about it was the fact that a BBC reporter was booed by the audience. I then saw journalists on Twitter, etc pointing out that Corbyn smiled when the booing happened, as if that somehow makes him a bad person. If you watch the whole video, the reporter getting booed was smiling too, he was looking at her, they both ended up smiling- it was an awkward situation. He did end up putting his hand up to silence the audience so that the reporter could ask her question. I don't really see how he can work with the media and effectively get his message across when they're so determined to paint him in a negative light.
     
  13. Dean

    Trusted Prestigious

    Like I said, both can be true. There absolutely is a lot of bias against him, but there are accounts out there of his press office lacking fundamental media savvy regardless of circumstance which appear to be true, and there's an argument to be made about him not going on the offensive more in regards to things like Iain Duncan Smith's resignation and the current government infighting over the EU referendum. I don't like it either, but as party politics go it is what it is.


    I'm not keen on the article as a whole but this is the easiest example to find of what I'm talking about.

    Labour must stop booing the media – they’re Jeremy Corbyn’s best hope | Ellie Mae O’Hagan
    And this does a better job of arguing more or less the same thing that I am.
     
  14. MexicanGuitars

    Chorus’ Expert on OTIP Track #8 Supporter

    Design for the One Percent | Jacobin

    In the post–Pruitt-Igoe world, the very idea of public housing has been tarnished. Broader changes in the operating ideology of the economy and political system — roughly contemporaneous with the decline of modernist architecture — have also made any ambitious government plan to provide affordable housing almost unimaginable.

    These include: the assault on the welfare state; the fetishization of free-market efficiency and the reflexive promotion of privatization; and the increasing financialization of society, which re-conceptualizes things like housing as an investment rather than a means of shelter.
     
    Dominick likes this.
  15. Wharf Rat

    I know a little something you won't ever know Prestigious

    the left being happy about the brexit is gross

    no honest clue in the world where the idea that this vote has come from class consciousness came from

    you can accelerate all you like but if there's no socialist movement to take advantage of the ruin you're fighting for we just end up with fascism
     
    Dean and cubsml34 like this.
  16. Wharf Rat

    I know a little something you won't ever know Prestigious

    Cool antifa shit in SF today
     
  17. MexicanGuitars

    Chorus’ Expert on OTIP Track #8 Supporter

  18. alex

    notgonz Prestigious

  19. CoffeeEyes17

    Reclusive-aggressive Prestigious

    Been catching up on this thread since anarchism and Marxism philosophies have been appealing to me for quite a while and I need to just sit down and immerse myself in some literature regarding those ideologies
     
    thenewmatthewperry likes this.
  20. Trotsky

    Trusted

    I have never read Zizek beyond what has crept in through other readings.


    Does anyone have a definitive opinion about him or his work?

    Also, after I get done with Wages of Rebellion, I'm going to start reading this little book I found in a mom and pop book store in rural Missouri. It's called Comes the Comrade and is about the human rights violations committed during the Soviet occupation (or "liberation") of Hungary through the perspective of a Polish woman who married a Hungarian man. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm sensitive to accounts of sexual violence to an almost pathetic, pathological degree.
     
  21. Trotsky

    Trusted

    If Labour gets out of its way, there seems to be a great deal of enthusiasm for democratic socialism. By the way, did anyone else read about that shady resolution at the Labour conference to exclude the 500k members who have joined in the past six months, who are presumably Corbyn-friendly?
     
  22. Dean Jul 13, 2016
    (Last edited: Jul 13, 2016)
    Dean

    Trusted Prestigious

    There were at least reports of them trying to take similar measures last year, when there was a surge of entryists who presumably wanted to vote for Corbyn. Doing it in a way that specifically makes membership and the vote much less accessible to people with lower incomes, regardless of who they'd want as leader, is really gross, though.

    Apparently new union members still get a vote if they join within the next month, and that's a bit more affordable seeing as it's usually a couple of pounds a month instead of paying £25 in one chunk, so there's that.
     
  23. Trotsky

    Trusted

    Can someone here (@Dominick, @Wharf Rat, @Chaplain Tappman) who is knowledgeable on the topics of Maoism and the political development of modern China give me a run-down of its failures and where the state most lapsed in cause?

    I've been trying to be less Western-centric and, for all I've read about Marxism/Leninism/Pink tide/etc., I've never really cared to delve into Maoism and China. In reading just about the ideology, it seems to be an acceptable Marxist variant.
     
  24. Dominick

    Prestigious Prestigious

    International Socialist Review
     
  25. alex

    notgonz Prestigious

    Reading The Civil War In Paris and currently dying at Marx referring to Thiers as "that monstrous gnome."