Ask TNF

[TNF]

Why not? AMA.

[H. Ross Peron]

What made you make your transition to Marxism from social democracy?

Do you believe religious persons can be proper Marxists?

[Hamster]

Are you prepared for the revolution?

[TNF]

What made you make your transition to Marxism from social democracy?

This is a question that I think I can best answer in terms of my general ideological progression from progressive to social democrat to Marxist, so I'll start from there. I began self-identifying as a progressive shortly before the election of Barack Obama in 2008. I was actually fairly left-leaning at that point, supported Kucinich/Gravel/Edwards in the primaries and then moved to support Obama because of the Clintons being terrible and my regarding Hillary Clinton as the more conservative of the two candidates. As that race unfolded, and as the subsequent administration began, I became something of an Obama apologist, and moved back toward the center a bit. I always had kind of a radical view on things like unions and the like, but this wasn't really fleshed out all that much; by early 2010 I was very disenchanted with politics as a whole, something that only accelerated when the Democrats lost control of the House and I decided that I wasn't entirely comfortable identifying as a liberal anymore.

There were a lot of reasons for that. The biggest ones were the utter silence from the administration on the ongoing fight over public sector bargaining in Wisconsin, and the Obama administration's decision to intervene militarily in Libya, though experience with actual liberals in college played a definite role, since very few of them shared my primary political concerns and I felt increasingly uncomfortable self-identifying as a liberal as a result. It just didn't seem like an ideology that 'clicked' with my way of viewing the world, and so I decided to look elsewhere. Throughout 2011, I researched and poured over social democratic theory and read up on the social democratic parties of Europe and the kinds of policies they produced, which I felt at the time were probably something close to ideal. I embraced Occupy Wall Street and got involved with a local variant, although we didn't really see much of anything come out of it, here. By the end of 2011, I was upset enough with the course of the Obama administration to strongly consider voting third party and ditching the Democrats altogether.

But then the barrage of campaign statements and campaign propaganda, the posturing on the part of the President to shore up his progressive supporters and what not all happened, and I bought the "lesser of two evils" line. I spent most of 2012 reconciling my own social democratic views (at that point) with my support for Obama and really thought that things could be different, that the administration could be much bolder and much more progressive, and could legislate as it had campaigned. The President calling for a higher minimum wage at the start of 2013 definitely got me hopeful on that note, but his total unwillingness to fight for it (as well as his unwillingness to fight for much of anything) soured me once again on the administration, this time, though, it would be for good.

In rejecting the Obama administration outright, I ended up rejecting a lot of the assumptions that I had made in my social democratic phase, because I felt these were bound up with one another and needed re-evaluating. I was disenchanted, but I was also, for the first time, addressing my assumptions and throwing out those that no longer made any sense to me.

Stumbling into Marxism as a result was actually just kind of an accident. I read Michael Harrington's Socialism: Past and Future because I wanted to get kind of a brief overview on what socialism (as opposed to social democracy) was, what it was all about, etc. I was hooked. More than any other book, I think that one is the one that sealed the deal and convinced me that I had been a socialist from the beginning, I just didn't know how to express that yet. After Harrington I delved into Marx's work and have continued my study since then, branching out to other Marxist thinkers (even those I don't entirely agree with, like Lenin, for instance).

Do you believe religious persons can be proper Marxists?

Given that Marxism is a materialist philosophy, and thus rejects metaphysical ideas about nature and society, I would think that any person who self-identifies as a Marxist and a religious person (in the sense that they believe in a creator deity with a strong degree of control over the world in which we inhabit) would have a lot of internal contradictions (how dialectical ) to deal with, philosophically speaking.

Are you prepared for the revolution?

Far less than I should be, unfortunately. When I get moved I want to really get involved with a socialist organization (not sure which yet, going to have to do some research) and help fight the good fight somewhere.

[bedstuy]

How can you ever reach an efficient distribution of capital, labor and resources without a free market system? 

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

My dog ate a plate of brownies earlier tonight. They didn't have much chocolate in them, but should I be concerned?

[windjammer]

Do you consider socialism is a religion?

[TNF]

How can you ever reach an efficient distribution of capital, labor and resources without a free market system?  

How can you ever reach an efficient distribution of capital, labor, and resources with a free market system? The idea that capitalism effectively distributes resources, deploys capital, and utilizes labor is absurd when one remembers that we have both homeless people and peopleless homes and when we have something like 13 percent real unemployment and capitalists are moving production overseas or just sitting on their hands. But to answer your question, I think that under a socialist system, you would have far more efficiency because you wouldn't have a situation in which something like a fourth of the population is written off to unemployment, disease, starvation, ghettoization, etc. Labor-saving devices, which now exist to enrich the capitalist and make the workday worse for the worker, would be put to work for the worker and help get rid of the kind of mindless work many of us find ourselves in today. Capital would not be moved out of the country to increase the bottom line for capitalists; instead it would be put to good use doing whatever it is that needs doing, be it building solar panels or mass transit or building pre-fab housing. Resources would be distributed on the basis of need, rather than on the basis of ability to buy and sell.

My dog ate a plate of brownies earlier tonight. They didn't have much chocolate in them, but should I be concerned?

Were they pot brownies? If they were, I'd recommend stocking up on dog food - you're going to need it.

Do you consider socialism is a religion?

Not at all. Religion is metaphysical, (Marxian) socialism is materialist.

[windjammer]

So do you consider socialism is a materialist religion?

[TNF]

So do you consider socialism is a materialist religion?

Not in the least.

[Cassius]

Somewhat off track from the general direction of the questions in this thread, but what's your view of Kantian Ethics?

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

What are your feelings on Noam Chomsky?

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

What would it hypothetically take to make you vote for Scott Walker?

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

How do you feel about Luis Suarez's transfer to FC Barcelona?

[TNF]

Somewhat off track from the general direction of the questions in this thread, but what's your view of Kantian Ethics?

I am honestly not familiar enough with Kant to make a judgment either way.

What are your feelings on Noam Chomsky?

He's a dogmatic, sectarian old bastard. But he's also right more often than not, and I enjoy his commentary.

What would it hypothetically take to make you vote for Scott Walker?

99 percent union density in every sector of the economy.

How do you feel about Luis Suarez's transfer to FC Barcelona?

I'm an American, so I am not the least bit interested in soccer.

[Cranberry]

Do you believe an overcoming of national states and their replacement with a "world union" (of regions) is necessary?

[TNF]

Do you believe an overcoming of national states and their replacement with a "world union" (of regions) is necessary?

Absolutely.

[Arturo Belano]

What is your opinion on computerized central planning systems like Project Cybersyn? Would you support a modern system for a socialist economy?

What do you think of Proudhon?

[TNF]

What is your opinion on computerized central planning systems like Project Cybersyn? Would you support a modern system for a socialist economy?

What do you think of Proudhon?

Computerized planning is a great development and will no doubt be necessary as a means of helping develop the future socialist economy. I think that it would be great to have people vote on the kind of plan they'd like to have drawn up and then present those plans to them for a final vote on what needs to be done. Computerization will certainly help bridge a lot of the gaps that existed in 20th Century planning regimes.

I haven't read a lot of Proudhon or the early anarchist and socialist thinkers yet. Right now I'm trying to get through Marxism and it's varieties before I delve into anarchism, so I'll let you know whenever I get to that point.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

What is your favorite Turkish snack cake (or "kek")?

[Franzl]

Do you share the opinions of a certain former poster on guillotines?

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

Regardless of whether religious persons can be proper Marxists, can they be more or less trustworthy fellow travelers?

[traininthedistance]

Do you think Poland's very existence is an act of aggression?

[I Will Not Be Wrong]

I have you on ignore TNF, what do you think about that?

[TNF]

What is your favorite Turkish snack cake (or "kek")?

Do you share the opinions of a certain former poster on guillotines?

But of course.

Regardless of whether religious persons can be proper Marxists, can they be more or less trustworthy fellow travelers?

Of course! I don't see a problem with building bridges with socialists of all stripes (religious or not, this tendency or that tendency, etc.) provided that they have the same goal of moving beyond capitalist society and toward socialism.

Do you think Poland's very existence is an act of aggression?

In the context of a nation-state being inherently an organization constituted on an exclusionary basis, sure.

I have you on ignore TNF, what do you think about that?

It doesn't really bother me, honestly, given that you're easily one of the dumbest people who uses this site.