Manifesto hard reading?

[Militant Marxist]

Did anyone find the Communist Manifesto hard to read, when i started trying to educate myself i found it extremely hard to read, if i am honest i had to read it about five times to fully understand it.
I was really embarrassed and i feel like my lack of education will prevent me from making a positive impact on society, will it?

[mosfeld]

I actually agree with you, reading Marx is hard as hell. So is reading Lenin, though I find reading him way easier than Marx. If it's any comfort, Uncle Ho found reading Lenin hard, but, like you, skimmed through it and eventually got it.


There were political terms difficult to understand in this thesis. But by dint of reading it again and again, finally I could grasp the main part of it. What emotion, enthusiasm, clear-sightedness and confidence it instilled into me! I was overjoyed to tears. Though sitting alone in my room, I shouted out aloud as if addressing large crowds: “Dear martyrs compatriots! This is what we need, this is the path to our liberation!
From ''The Path which lead me to Leninism' (http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/ho-chi-minh/works/1960/04/x01.htm)'

[The Count]

It's completely understandable for someone to read the Manifesto a few times before accurately grasping the concept. Marx was often not concise or to-the-point with his ideas. I'd suggest reading a bit of Engels, as his writing style is much more accommodating and for the most part, he portrays the same ideas as Marx.

Lack of education? The fact that you read the Communist Manifesto 5 times in order to fully understand it shows me that you're passionate about knowledge. If anything, the more intellectual someone is, the less useful they are to society.

[Holden Caulfield]

Marx is boring and dry, don't feel stupid for thinking it.
He has brilliant works tho, worth slogging your way thru

[scarletghoul]

Yeah I also found it pretty difficult when I read it. This was about a year ago, and I haven't tried to read it again because I think I've absorbed all the basics of Communism anyway, through other things. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it too much right now, it's just one document and you don't have to be intellectual to be a commie :cool:

[Sean]

I'm going to be a little shit here, but I proposed classes with threads on all left wing books which I think would help a lot. Its a dry, painful read.

[LOLseph Stalin]

I find most communists in general difficult to read with Marx and Trotsky probably being the most difficult. I'm probably the furthest thing from an intellectual, but as others have said you don't need to be an intellectual to be a communist. :)

[scarletghoul]

Mao is quite easy to read btw. The Red Book is maybe the most easy to read out of all the classic communist pieces.

[Militant Marxist]

Thanks, will try and find it online comrade, i have no money for books and my library is very poor.
If anyone has a link let me know.
Thanks.

[mosfeld]

Why did he get banned? :confused:

Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung (http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/)

[Manifesto]

^^^ Sockpuppet apparently.

[Il Medico]

I didn't find it hard to read at all. But that's probably just me. I've read it twice and I am thinking about reading it again.

[scarletghoul]

Yeah 19th Century writing is really annoying haha. It takes pages n pages to make a single point. Even the poetry.

Mao was certainly a modern writer, and also he would often be talking to the ordinary people, so it was important to make it understandable for them. Furthermore it seems that Chinese/East Asian literature in general is a lot more concise than western stuff, especially of the 19th Century. Again, this can be seen in poetry. The Art Of War is a great example of this conciseness too, if you compare it to European military texts.

[blake 3:17]

The Communist Manifesto is GREAT! And it's a good read. Spectres haunting Europe? All that is solid melts into air? Holy moly. Don't worry that you haven't understood it all.

Marx and Engels looked at the world in ways noone else had and in really creative imaginative ways. You've inspired me to read it again. Thanks!

[Jimmie Higgins]

Don't worry about it. The ideas are there in the manifesto and these hold up well for the most part, but it's hard to read out of context. There are a couple of sections which discuss pretty specific things about politics and political groups of that time and it's hard to know what he's talking about because the references are archaic.

It's the same with reading Lenin because he's so polemical that really you kind of need to have read the things he's responding to in order to understand his arguments. This is also why it is so easy to take him out of context and make him look like the greatest man who ever lived (if you are a giant statue-loving Stalinist for example ) or the devil (if you are a sectarian anarchist for example).

My advice is to try and find other radicals or a radical reading circle (many college towns have them - or maybe you can find a few people here to do it with online) so that you can discuss it together and talk more about the historical context.

[ArrowLance]

The manifesto can be difficult, and I didn't really understand it my first time through either. I was only 15 or so and the way it flowed and the terminology was hard for me to understand and follow. Gosh, I remember how i used to pronounce 'bourgeoisie' . . .

Overall the manifesto is not terribly difficult imo. Marx all together though, I feel, is very dull. Which can make it hard to stay on track while reading.

Lenin on the other hand is very entertaining to me.

[Shin Honyong]

Marx isn't just a hard writer to understand, he just isn't a good writer for the most part. In fairness, 98% of political philosophers are pretty crappy writers (Locke is probably the worst) and Marx is better than alot of the more famous ones. I concur with the Engel as a recommendation, I always thought he was one of the better writers and more accessible of the leftist writers during his time.

[Comrade Anarchist]

i have a hard time reading anything from that era just b/c their language was different compared todays so the translations are kinda odd at times. But i understood it after a while.

[redasheville]

Marx is boring and dry, don't feel stupid for thinking it.
He has brilliant works tho, worth slogging your way thru

While I agree that Marx is difficult to read, and I second what Gravedigger said (I'd also suggest reading the Haymarket Books edition of the Communist Manifesto, because it provides a wealth of background info and it explains the text paragraph by paragraph), it is a stretch to call Marx dry. Marx's writings are filled with emotion, and his rhetorical skills are often bordering on poetry.

[Pavlov's House Party]

Marx is generally difficult to read, cf, Capital. Lenin is easier to read as is Engels.

I would disagree, Lenin's earlier works like Imperialism were written so they would pass Czarist censorship laws, and are thus very confusing and never get to a clear point. He kind of tries to make his points without actually saying them. Engels is a much easier read, his work "The Principles of Communism" is one of the best works a beginner should read.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm

[CELMX]

I totally agree!!

Das Kapital was the first book i attempted to read when I first got into communism...bad idea:laugh:

anyways, as i said before, if ur looking for something easy to read about marx, etc.
read Marx for Beginners by Rius. full of pretty pictures!:D

you can make a positive impact on society by supporting the masses...that can be in nonintellectual ways, like donating money to the poor, going to rallies, informing the masses about what communsim actually is, supporting ur local socialist/communist party (except if ur in the U.S....it's pretty much shit) etc.

[btpound]

I think a lot of people feel that way, especially about the communist manifesto. It's supposable considered by your average person to be like our bible or something, but the first time I read it I was so confused. I think if anything it hurt my understanding of communism. Reading it today, it sounds like an awful idea. lol I think that it spoke to the people of that time, but i don't know if it's as relevant anymore. As far as Marx b eing dry, it's a mix bag. I just read the German Ideology recently, and I highly recomend it. An easy read, for Marx.

[Red Label]

it is really hard to get through IMO

[punisa]

Did anyone find the Communist Manifesto hard to read, when i started trying to educate myself i found it extremely hard to read, if i am honest i had to read it about five times to fully understand it.
I was really embarrassed and i feel like my lack of education will prevent me from making a positive impact on society, will it?

Wait till you get your hands on his "Capital", now that one is a ***** :lol:
Don't feel bad about not quite getting into Karl's head immediately. Many of us have felt that way.

I tried reading it years ago, I gave up. Then came back a year after, could grasp a little more, but not quite.
Today I can say that I finally got it :laugh:

My strategy for the manifesto:
go veeeery slow, whenever you come to even a sentence you don't get go and research it.
Remember the very beginning? I didn't know what the hell is a spectre, but google is our friend here.

I wouldn't say Marx is dry, I'd say he is a genius. There is no book from the 19th century that is as relevant today as it was back then.
Ok, you have to throw in some of the new concepts, but essentially communist manifesto is a literary work of art.

I was thinking of dissecting it in small details and doing a cross-analysis of it comparing it to 21st century.
Do you think anyone would be interested in reading such material?
I wrote a couple of books already, but never about politics/economy, only software engineering :p