Life

[C.K.]

I'm not sure which section I should've posted this in, but I intend to learn from it, so Learning it is. If it needs moved, so be it.

For the last 2 years, at least, I've primarily been reading Marx, Engels, Lenin & Che. I throw in some other shit to spice it up, but once I started to read the above gentlemen I found it necessary to continue to do so indefinitely.

Way back when, I didn't finish my degree. I didn't care then nor do I care now. Investing 100k into a miseducation is one of the stupidest ideas I'm glad I didn't fall for. I learn on my own the things I enjoy learning about & I'm cool w/ that.

I work an 8-5 in order to survive. I'm not a careerist. I've turned down promotions b/c I have no desire to be any further entrenched in this, or any other, company of this economic order. Nevertheless, I must survive. I must put food on the table & keep the roof over our heads. I would prefer to do so via a method that is in accordance to my personal beliefs, but I'm doubting more & more each day that its a possibility.

As I said, I'm not a careerist. But spending a large portion of my life helping perpetuate something I despise, is unsettling. Any alternative option to secure a living for my family is no better, nor less time consuming, than what I do now. I live in the Bible Belt, in a smaller community, nestled in a very red (not a good shade of red) state. There aren't many avenues for me to locate like-minded individuals, nor after securing a living & raising a young man do I have much time to do so.

I'm not as versed in Marxism as I intend to become. I enjoy the process of learning more. My question is to any of those that can relate. How do you maintain sanity? Even if you don't live in Southern Indiana, I know you don't live in a communist society.

[Os Cangaceiros]

I generally find enjoyment in meaningful human interaction with other people. Whether it's love, friendship, or just a nice conversation with a stranger etc.

EDIT: I'm assuming this OP is about methods of escapism people use to cope with the societal conditions they have to deal with...?

[Flying Purple People Eater]

I help other people- it makes my life less horrible when I go out on a limb to make another's better. Empathy be fucking odd.

That and games.

[Blake's Baby]

Finding other communists to discuss and hopefully work with is the most important thing I think. I appreciate it's hard living where you do, but even if it's only one day a month, it would be helpful I think if you could find the time to go to any kind of political meeting at all where you could discuss your politics.

After that, stop reading Che and start reading Trotsky, Luxemburg, Pannekoek, Bordiga, Kropotkin, Goldman, Rocker, and indeed the organisations that actually exist now, is my recommendation.

We're not going to overthrow capitalism by hiding in jungles and waging guerrilla war. And there aren't any jungles in Indiana anyway. We're going to overthrow capitalism by organising among the working class. I think Che is utterly irrelevent to the workers' movement in the west (and I'm not sure he's relevent anywhere else either). The theory of the 'small detonator' (and the whole focalism) is a blind alley for the working class, in my opinion, we need to connect with what exists not assume that 'the masses' will flock towards paramiltary groups in the hills.

Anyway - whatever way your endevours take you, good luck.

EDIT: Oooh, other people have answered too. I'm assuming the question is about how one keeps one's political sanity.

[The Jay]

How do we keep our sanity? I think that you have the wrong idea about us. Also, hi!

[Flying Purple People Eater]

How do we keep our sanity? I think that you have the wrong idea about us. Also, hi!
Sanity is an illusion.

Embrace the void.

[C.K.]

Thanks for taking the time to read my post. And basically you are all correct about what I was driving at. I suffer from being terribly long-winded, my apologies.

Essentially, life for me (and I'm sure I'm not alone, here) changed significantly when I became a communist. After some personal reflection, many things in my life seemed to be tools of the bourgeoisie at work. Keeping me politically numb & distracted from the true motives that have dictated history & their intentions for the future.

I was never a fan of capitalism, colonialism, imperialism, etc. But I didn't know where the answers might be. I thought perhaps reform was actually a possibility. After becoming a communist, things I held dear before now seem meaningless. Things about life in the U.S. that I could tolerate but didn't endorse, now seem utterly disgusting. The depths of bourgeois indoctrination makes me sick to my stomach.

Well, I'm just ranting at this point. Also, I've mostly read Che from a historical standpoint & b/c I admire the s.o.b. Not necessarily from an ideological standpoint.

[cantwealljustgetalong]

well, welcome aboard the S.S. Commie Bastard. :)

I maintain my sanity by meeting with socialist groups and doing activism. reading socialist theory is very good for clearing up intellectual conundrums and helps me out in conversation/argument, but there's nothing like getting out there and learning from action. it gives me a confidence in myself and my politics that no shitty job can take away.

I realize that doing that kind of thing in Southern Indiana might make you a target, and finding time to do other stuff between work and family probably sounds untenable, but that's the only thing that's really worked for me so far.

[Art Vandelay]

Petty property destruction ;)

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

We're not going to overthrow capitalism by hiding in jungles and waging guerrilla war. And there aren't any jungles in Indiana anyway. We're going to overthrow capitalism by organising among the working class. I think Che is utterly irrelevent to the workers' movement in the west (and I'm not sure he's relevent anywhere else either). The theory of the 'small detonator' (and the whole focalism) is a blind alley for the working class, in my opinion, we need to connect with what exists not assume that 'the masses' will flock towards paramiltary groups in the hills.

Excuse me comrade, but the author of this post was not arguing for focoism. And the fact that you have reduced the entirety of Che's theoretical work to his writings on military strategy shows that you have not engaged Che's work in a complete sense. Che also wrote of very useful critiques of Soviet Political Economy, and is considered a theoretical classic amoungst alot of Anti-Revisionists. By negating the theoretical merits of Che and suggesting that the poster would do better to stop reading him and start reading your own theoretical heroes is insulting to his intelligence. Sure, there is nothing wrong with suggesting your own tendency to other people, but you should try to do so without belittling the authors that others hold dear unless you understand the entirety of their theoretical contributions, which you clearly demonstrated that you did not through this post.

[C.K.]

My intelligence wasn't insulted & I appreciate any recommendations any folks on here have to further my knowledge. Doesn't mean for a moment that I'll fully endorse everything I come across. I read plenty of shit that I don't intend on defending until the death.

Che lead me to Marx & for that I am forever grateful. Despite not being able to necessarily implement his war tactics into a present day struggle, I love reading his diaries & other writings describing how he did implement them, whether successfully or not.