Sixiang
9th September 2010, 23:48
Greetings revleft!
After months of lurking around on these forums, searching for answers to questions and reading discussions, I have finally joined. I joined mostly for the opportunity to learn. I will mostly be asking questions to try to better understand things. I suppose my next course of action will be to answer these questions:
-Where are you from, whats the leftist scene there like? I am from West Michigan, USA. I don't want to reveal too much information on here, so I will hold off on my city name for now. My particular town and area of town is predominantly Republican. However, I have met a few anarchists here and there and I do know that there must be a decent amount of socialists in Michigan from what I've read here and there about it. Most people here think that "leftist" means the Democratic Party, which is something I sigh in frustration at.
- What branch of leftism do you subscribe to? I am not too specific or exact in my political leanings. I can tell you this much: I am a socialist. I do really, really like Karl Marx's writings, but I don't know if I feel comfortable calling myself a "Marxist" per say. I believe that I have a lot more reading and learning to go through before I want to get more specific with all of the different "-ists" or the left. I can say that I dislike totalitarianism/authoritarianism/dictatorships pretty adamantly. I am not a member of any political party right now. I have been researching the various different socialist parties that are in the USA, and I like some things about most of them, but I'm not too sure enough to just choose one at the moment. I can say that I am at least interested in the Socialist Equality Party, the Socialist Party USA, and the Communist Party USA. We'll see, though. I could totally change my mind about any of them.
- How did you become a leftist? I became leftist from a serious of influential events, which mostly include books I've read. I first became interested in leftist ideas when I was a wee little 12 or 13 year old in junior high. I have been really interested in History for a long time, and I was just particularly interested in the histories of the USSR, North Korea, China, and Cuba (not that I'm claiming those nations are leftist, I just associated leftism with them at the time). I was reading about Stalin, Mao, Lenin, Castro, the Kim family mostly out of interest, not really because I supported their ideology. My friends and family mocked me for it, accusing me of being a communist. And, at this time in my life, I was extremely sensitive and didn't want to loose those people, so I sort of gave up on it. I didn't really understand any socialist theory or anything, mind you. I still worshiped the American "founding fathers" at this time. It wasn't until part way through my Junior year of High School that my interest returned. I was taking a U.S. History class at the time, and when we got to the late 19th century, particularly the labor movement and industrialization, I was absolutely fascinated. Seeing the pictures of and reading about workers in factories and mines working for 12 hours a day with no breaks, no job security, no health coverage, and just poor working conditions in general really impacted me emotionally. When we learned about the struggles of labor unions against these corrupt capitalists and politicians, I couldn't help but side with the workers. Ironically, the teacher I had for this course is a staunch capitalist and right-wing conservative. When we went over Karl Marx, Lenin, and all of that, she spoke with contempt. She spoke rather negatively of them all, but for some reason, that made me even more interested. I went on to read about these guys. I wanted to know what this ideology was all about. I wasn't really close minded. I was pretty politically confused at the time and had no real direction, so I wasn't totally antagonistic to Marx when I dove into his theory. Another interesting step was that I loved literature and one of my favorite writers was George Orwell. I loved Animal Farm and 1984. Reading more about him, I learned that he was a "democratic socialist." What was this? Why did my favorite writer subscribe to this ideology? That was another reason why I became curious of socialism. I've read more and more over the past few months, and I've come to the point were I can firmly declare that I do not believe in capitalism and that I do support socialism. The details are work in process for me.
After months of lurking around on these forums, searching for answers to questions and reading discussions, I have finally joined. I joined mostly for the opportunity to learn. I will mostly be asking questions to try to better understand things. I suppose my next course of action will be to answer these questions:
-Where are you from, whats the leftist scene there like? I am from West Michigan, USA. I don't want to reveal too much information on here, so I will hold off on my city name for now. My particular town and area of town is predominantly Republican. However, I have met a few anarchists here and there and I do know that there must be a decent amount of socialists in Michigan from what I've read here and there about it. Most people here think that "leftist" means the Democratic Party, which is something I sigh in frustration at.
- What branch of leftism do you subscribe to? I am not too specific or exact in my political leanings. I can tell you this much: I am a socialist. I do really, really like Karl Marx's writings, but I don't know if I feel comfortable calling myself a "Marxist" per say. I believe that I have a lot more reading and learning to go through before I want to get more specific with all of the different "-ists" or the left. I can say that I dislike totalitarianism/authoritarianism/dictatorships pretty adamantly. I am not a member of any political party right now. I have been researching the various different socialist parties that are in the USA, and I like some things about most of them, but I'm not too sure enough to just choose one at the moment. I can say that I am at least interested in the Socialist Equality Party, the Socialist Party USA, and the Communist Party USA. We'll see, though. I could totally change my mind about any of them.
- How did you become a leftist? I became leftist from a serious of influential events, which mostly include books I've read. I first became interested in leftist ideas when I was a wee little 12 or 13 year old in junior high. I have been really interested in History for a long time, and I was just particularly interested in the histories of the USSR, North Korea, China, and Cuba (not that I'm claiming those nations are leftist, I just associated leftism with them at the time). I was reading about Stalin, Mao, Lenin, Castro, the Kim family mostly out of interest, not really because I supported their ideology. My friends and family mocked me for it, accusing me of being a communist. And, at this time in my life, I was extremely sensitive and didn't want to loose those people, so I sort of gave up on it. I didn't really understand any socialist theory or anything, mind you. I still worshiped the American "founding fathers" at this time. It wasn't until part way through my Junior year of High School that my interest returned. I was taking a U.S. History class at the time, and when we got to the late 19th century, particularly the labor movement and industrialization, I was absolutely fascinated. Seeing the pictures of and reading about workers in factories and mines working for 12 hours a day with no breaks, no job security, no health coverage, and just poor working conditions in general really impacted me emotionally. When we learned about the struggles of labor unions against these corrupt capitalists and politicians, I couldn't help but side with the workers. Ironically, the teacher I had for this course is a staunch capitalist and right-wing conservative. When we went over Karl Marx, Lenin, and all of that, she spoke with contempt. She spoke rather negatively of them all, but for some reason, that made me even more interested. I went on to read about these guys. I wanted to know what this ideology was all about. I wasn't really close minded. I was pretty politically confused at the time and had no real direction, so I wasn't totally antagonistic to Marx when I dove into his theory. Another interesting step was that I loved literature and one of my favorite writers was George Orwell. I loved Animal Farm and 1984. Reading more about him, I learned that he was a "democratic socialist." What was this? Why did my favorite writer subscribe to this ideology? That was another reason why I became curious of socialism. I've read more and more over the past few months, and I've come to the point were I can firmly declare that I do not believe in capitalism and that I do support socialism. The details are work in process for me.