Gonna read Max Stirner's The Memo and His Own

[AnarchoBlonde]

Hello all, this is pretty much my first time posting on revleft. Hell, I haven't even properly lurked on revleft. So I guess that makes me a noob. So A few days ago I ordered The Ego and His Own. I became a nihilist a few weeks ago and an :blackA:narchist a few months ago. So damn happy I'm not a tankie now. After releasing the complete nothingness in the sense of meaning and morals (really I heard about nihilist through Max Stirner). This lead me to the decision to read Max Stirner's "main" work.

I made a /leftypol/ post about this and I got told it would be boring by one person. I was also told it would basically trigger me. Being into nihilism and offending liberals on a daily basis, is this true?

Really what can I be promised by this book (apart from translation) including but not limited to: linguistics, detail, length of the book, Max's philosophy and how it could fit into an anarcho-communist philosophy.

Also, what where Max's economic beliefs? Was he a market anarchist or was he for a individualist communes system?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: reposting on learning, I feel it a more appropriate place.

[Ale Brider]

Welcome! I'm relatively new here, too.

I don't really understand why are lurking around /leftypol/ in the first place, when it is a known gathering place for crypto-fascists. I would not really recommend Stirner as well. I mean yeah, of course, could be an interesting read, and it never hurts to read philosophy anyway (well, except if you misread or terribly misunderstand some concepts, that could hurt, I had to learn this the hard way), so go for it. But don't expect Stirner to be compatible with anarcho-communism to any extent. Honestly I can't really even understand how you reconcile nihilism with anarcho-communism. Would you explain this one?

[AnarchoBlonde]

Welcome! I'm relatively new here, too.

I don't really understand why are lurking around /leftypol/ in the first place, when it is a known gathering place for crypto-fascists. I would not really recommend Stirner as well. I mean yeah, of course, could be an interesting read, and it never hurts to read philosophy anyway (well, except if you misread or terribly misunderstand some concepts, that could hurt, I had to learn this the hard way), so go for it. But don't expect Stirner to be compatible with anarcho-communism to any extent. Honestly I can't really even understand how you reconcile nihilism with anarcho-communism. Would you explain this one?

I have reconciled nihilism with anarcho-communism in a way I seem somewhat obvious but maybe not so to others. I see through the meaningless of life, you have the meaning you give it. Your life has been thrown towards you. Throw life a curveball and make that life your own. Authority prevents people from living out their true potential, stopping them from prescribing their meaning of their life as the drug that kills the pain of the feeling of no purpose. I find it somewhat cruel to be able to deny the human as being a logical and free being through unnecessary authority. I find Max's individualism, and other forms of individualism in anarchism, to help make sure the individual is free in an anarchist society and not subject to brute collectivism. I would like a balancing of individualism and collectivism to ensure autonomy of the individual and the collective. Do note that anarchism does this quite well in the first place.

As for /leftypol/, I don't go on it much but I like the memes and the way image boards work as opposed to conventional forums. The people can be fascist and brocialist but I find *some* of their critiques of identity politics quite reasonable and even sometimes agreeable.

[Ale Brider]

Fair enough for me. Your stance however, seems more existentialist to me than outright nihilist.

[AnarchoBlonde]

Well it is more the existentialist part of nihilism I outlined supporting anarchism there.

[Cliff Paul]

Leftypol isn't a forum of cryptofascists. There are a lot of "brocialists" on it though and a lot of the people on that site would be banned over here and for good reason. I've never read Stirner directly but I've read The German Ideology and that + my encounters with most egoist anarchists have dissuaded me from ever bothering to read Stirner's text in the first place.

[One Dimensional Man]

Read Bordiga instead, or N+1, or Endnotes, or something Left Communist. Engels makes egoism sound like a truism:

"But what is true in his principle, we, too, must accept. And what is true is that before we can be active in any cause we must make it our own, egoistic cause-and that in this sense, quite aside from any material expectations, we are communists in virtue of our egoism, that out of egoism we want to be human beings and not merely individuals."

[Kingfish]

Hello all, this is pretty much my first time posting on revleft. Hell, I haven't even properly lurked on revleft. So I guess that makes me a noob. So A few days ago I ordered The Ego and His Own. I became a nihilist a few weeks ago and an :blackA:narchist a few months ago. So damn happy I'm not a tankie now. After releasing the complete nothingness in the sense of meaning and morals (really I heard about nihilist through Max Stirner). This lead me to the decision to read Max Stirner's "main" work.

I made a /leftypol/ post about this and I got told it would be boring by one person. I was also told it would basically trigger me. Being into nihilism and offending liberals on a daily basis, is this true?

Really what can I be promised by this book (apart from translation) including but not limited to: linguistics, detail, length of the book, Max's philosophy and how it could fit into an anarcho-communist philosophy.

Also, what where Max's economic beliefs? Was he a market anarchist or was he for a individualist communes system?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: reposting on learning, I feel it a more appropriate place.

Max Stirners egoism is probably one of the most uncompromising philosophy youll find outside of the ancient greeks and presents a sledge hammer that destroys all moralising, ideology and social constructs without hypocritically attempting to replace it with one of his own. As for the complexity of the work whilst it has its fun parts and is comparatively easy to get to other philosophers of his time unless you are used to those kind of works its going to be pretty heavy reading.

As for his use to an Anarcho Communist - he will give you a solid understanding of egoist anarchism and equip you with the tools to destroy and discount any attempts by others to appeal to higher authorities worldly or otherwise.

As for his economic beliefs he had specific and rather anarchist ones however; and this is important the radicial egoism he professes can lead one to supporting almost any economic system. It was joking called the billionaires bible as well as the most left wing book for a that reason.

When you do read it try and focus on understanding what he means when he talks about spooks, property and the unique one (badly translated as Ego - he has nothing to do with modern conceptions of the term)

[(A)]

I have not read it but I am going to add it to my list.
I found this cheat sheet. (https://theconjurehouse.com/2016/11/18/the-stirner-wasnt-a-capitalist-you-fucking-idiot-cheat-sheet/)
It argues that despite what "most egoist anarchists" think; Sterner was Anti-capitalist and did not argue against socialism; just "Sacred Socialism".

In the argument between Individualism and collectivism I argue that what is in my best interest is a socialist society.


“We are advised to act in our own interest, and only a fool would misconstrue his bosses’ interest as his own. ”

This sums it up for me. My own interest is freedom from all forms of rule; economic & social.