Overwhelmed

[Jesus Saves Gretzky Scores]

I've become overwhelmed with all the different tendencies lately. Now, I know it's not that important to pick a side, but I read all the different articles on vanguardism, dictatorship of the proletariat, syndicalism, etc. and then it makes sense. But then I read a critique of it, and I don't know. It's hard to figure stuff out. Does anyone else feel like that? What do you do to deal with that?

[CryingWolf]

My views are constantly shifting as well. The way I deal with it is to simply stop seeing it as a problem. You don't have to have all the answers right this minute, and as long as you keep learning you're bound to reach the truth eventually.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

Way too much is made of terms like "dictatorship of the proletarian". Basically Marx defined socialism as the self emancipation of the working class. Socialists , or at least the only people I would regard as socialists, believe in an economy democratically run by the workers. The question is, how do we get there?

Worker's democracy is a far better term than DOTP.

This is it in a nutshell. Don't sweat the small stuff.

Proletarian...this merely means "the working class", the people, the only people, who create value.It came from ancient Rome where it originally meant "one who reproduces:, It was literally people capable of making babies. It then came to mean uprooted farmers and peasants who lived in cities and were entertained by bread and circuses. Their purpose was to breed soldiers for the Roman army.This is not the same as the working class under capitalism.

Vanguardism...I'm not really sure what this means either. In the US the radical left is tiny, easily less than 10,000, out of a country of 300 million.The ISO or PSL is not going to lead the masses in storming the White House or Pentagon, at least not in this reality. A well organized group of even a thousand people can be a catalyst or a fulcrum in struggles. If a well organized socialist group with even 100 people had existed in Wisconsin and had called for a general strike instead of a recall the Scott Walker vote could have turned out much differently. To me that's vanguardism.

I'm not a syndicalist. It basically means rule by trade unions. As I understand many syndicalists-George Sorel is the famous example, moved to far right. You'll have to ask someone more anarchist oriented about this.

Anyway I see socialism as a process, not a set of static terms. Its rule by the working class and how to get there.

[Jesus Saves Gretzky Scores]

Thanks guys:)

[jookyle]

It certainly happens all the time, especially when you're new to this site. Eventually though, you'll just know where you fall in. The more you read and the more you discuss the more you'll know where you stand.

[The Douche]

Get active, lots of things sound right if you just read them, action helps to clarify things. My ideas have changed a number of times in the 10 years I have been a communist, the struggle makes things concrete.

[Prof. Oblivion]

I would recommend approaching this as a beginning of a journey into philosophy more broadly and not stick so dogmatically with "Marxian" works. Too many on the left read all of the "big names" yet are completely ignorant of who they were inspired by or where the philosophical tradition of Marxism generally originates.

What do you know of philosophy? I would recommend starting with something like Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy to get a flavor for all of the different philosophers and how philosophy and its various tendencies/fields/etc. have developed over the past few thousand years.

Most of the questions that the left endlessly debate, such as vanguardism, are really silly and not very relevant to the present day.

[Ostrinski]

That's why something like revleft is convenient. People can help you decide what's worth and worth reading or looking into.

[The Douche]

That's why something like revleft is convenient. People can help you decide what's worth and worth reading or looking into.

Bullshit. Revleft is full of all the sectarian nastiness that we rarely let ourselves manifest in real life.

[Jesus Saves Gretzky Scores]

Thanks guys, I've been freaking out less about all this. There's nothing wrong with just being a general communist for now.

[Ostrinski]

Bullshit. Revleft is full of all the sectarian nastiness that we rarely let ourselves manifest in real life.Sectarianism is rife, yes, but without a resource like it many people would never have been bothered to learn something about different left theories. I couldn't have told you what anarcho-syndicalism or left communism were before revleft. Wouldn't have known who in the hell Luxemburg, Durruti, Kautsky, or Bukharin were either.

[Misanthrope]

Don't be pressured to join the sectarian flame baits. Seriously, arguing over outdated theories and justifying failed states is getting old.

[Leftsolidarity]

Most important would be to learn through being active in the struggle. That's the best way to learn where you stand.

Second, read as much as you can about what ur unsure about.

Third, learn from the stupid arguments here. While there's a lot of stupidity here like the douche (I prefer Chris) pointed out, it's helped me learn a lot.

[theblackmask]

Now, I know it's not that important to pick a side

No, it's really not. Picking a side is probably the worst thing you can do. The truth is that there are no "sides" anymore...anybody that has picked a side or tells you that you need to pick a side is probably more your enemy than your friend.

[GPDP]

Just read, ask questions, and process all the information. Swish it around your head like you would a concoction in a flask. I often spent nights in bed just thinking about shit I read on a book or even here on Revleft, and analyzed it endlessly to see if it made sense, and if it did, I would go over it again anyway just to make doubly sure.

Most importantly, never be sure that you have all the answers to everything. It's been 4 years since I joined this place, know far more than I did back then, and still I consider myself profoundly ignorant about a lot of things. A motto to live by, in my opinion, is to keep one's mouth shut if one lacks knowledge about the subject. If I find it of sufficient interest, I'll inform myself through the process I outlined above and introduce myself into the debate afterwards. If I didn't, then I step away from it rather than go off without knowing what I'm talking about and looking like a moron as a result.

And like people above have said, many of the things that people of differing tendencies on this place fight about are actually really silly and IMO not really worth debating outside of an academic interest in the subject. I personally don't care much who fucked over who in the old Soviet Union, whether Trotsky was superior to Stalin, which of the tiny ass parties in the US is THE vanguard party that will lead the American working class, or whatever else. That shit doesn't interest me. What does interest me is how people are suffering under the yoke of oppression, both political and economic, and what we can do to reverse the tide of reaction. To that end, I have my own opinions, but no real tendency to speak of beyond the fact that I consider myself a revolutionary socialist.

[Manic Impressive]

As Bill Cosby said study the evolution of political thought, not just communist thought but all political thought. Understand where these ideas have come from. Most debate on Revleft jumps in at different points in an argument, usually at the end, without going over the base reasons we hold such positions. If we did every post would be over 1000 words.

Remain scientific, don't omit or dismiss evidence just because it doesn't fit in with what you think at the present time.

Study the evolution of political movements and organization starting with the original opposition to capitalism and work your way up. Study the utopian socialists and find out why these movements failed. And again as Bill said don't just study the big names study the Guesdists and the Austrian socialists and all the small defunct groups.

Understand what capitalism is at it's lowest level and exactly how much is enough to completely abolish it.

That's all I can think of at the moment. That probably didn't help with the overwhelming thing. But you'll be a hella good Marxist if you do all this.

[Invader Zim]

The belief that people have to pick a tenancy, as if the left is like football league and you have to pick the right team, is ridiculous. Think whatever makes sense to you, and if it broadly happens to match the ideological position of a particular tenancy then all well and good.