smellincoffee
18th January 2010, 05:57
A political discussion in another forum linked to this page, and I was immediately interested. I'm from the deep south, so the strongest label I own in public is "social democrat" -- although in private, my opinions may be a bit more scurrilous. ;)
I started leaning left when I worked in a factory, not that any other workers were sympathizers. It just seemed to me in the course of working that things weren't as they should be. When I left the factory floor for the university, I'd left the Republicanism of my childhood for the Democrats, although by now I'm leery of voting for representatives. A year into my university studies I read The Communist Manifesto out of historical interest and noted that the bogeyman of "Marx" said things that made sense given what I'd observed. I don't know when I started thinking of myself as a Marxist, but it happened in either late 2008 or early 2009, when I read Emilie Carles' A Life of her Own and started studying the Frankfurt school in sociological theory class. Before this, though, I typed in "socialism" in Youtube out of curiosity and listened to the Internationale for the first time, sparking a still-strong interest in activism through music. I'm planning on buying a copy of the Wobbly songbook this year.
It wasn't until I read Carles that I realized socialism and communism were not concepts that had to be associated with "big government", and my interest in Marxist thought and my passion for human rights and humane government has led to me exploring direct democracy or something I picture in mind as "communal democracy".
I came to Marxism largely through humanism: my chief interest is the welfare of humanity, and I think we should use reason to live as wisely as possible and our innate empathy to live as humanely as possible.
I look forward to interesting conversations here, especially since my formal sociology studies have come to an end.
I started leaning left when I worked in a factory, not that any other workers were sympathizers. It just seemed to me in the course of working that things weren't as they should be. When I left the factory floor for the university, I'd left the Republicanism of my childhood for the Democrats, although by now I'm leery of voting for representatives. A year into my university studies I read The Communist Manifesto out of historical interest and noted that the bogeyman of "Marx" said things that made sense given what I'd observed. I don't know when I started thinking of myself as a Marxist, but it happened in either late 2008 or early 2009, when I read Emilie Carles' A Life of her Own and started studying the Frankfurt school in sociological theory class. Before this, though, I typed in "socialism" in Youtube out of curiosity and listened to the Internationale for the first time, sparking a still-strong interest in activism through music. I'm planning on buying a copy of the Wobbly songbook this year.
It wasn't until I read Carles that I realized socialism and communism were not concepts that had to be associated with "big government", and my interest in Marxist thought and my passion for human rights and humane government has led to me exploring direct democracy or something I picture in mind as "communal democracy".
I came to Marxism largely through humanism: my chief interest is the welfare of humanity, and I think we should use reason to live as wisely as possible and our innate empathy to live as humanely as possible.
I look forward to interesting conversations here, especially since my formal sociology studies have come to an end.