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What am I?
This is my first post.
I'm confused and i don't know what my political orientation is, I've always thought of myself as a leftist because of my hatred for religion, but as I learned that alone doesn't make you a left winger. I seem to like certain ideas of both the left and right. I like the idea of everyone being equal and everything being distributed equally, it's a classic utopia. But I also like the idea of patriotism and national identity. I love the idea of communism, but it just doesn't seem realistic to me. I understand Anarchism even less; once again not realistic. These ideas would work if people weren't money grubbing, backstabbing scumbags, but they are. I don't think that private property should be abolished, and I think that people should be paid more if they work more (to each according to his ability right?). Maybe you will laugh and say what an idiot I am and what little understanding of communism I have, but I'm willing to learn and am glad to be proven wrong about the unreallity of communism. What do you think about my points and what am I on the political scale?
Welcome MNINI,
You've come to a good place to have your questions answered. I recommend starting by reading the stickied posts in Learning, as well as searching through Opposing Ideologies for topics that sound interesting to you. All of the issues you've asked have countless pages devoted to addressing them in extreme detail.
You are deeply reactionary, regardless of your alleged identification with "ideas" of the Left - it is meaningless. Every fascist can support left-wing "ideas", in fact, it is very common to reject accusations of being fascistic by claiming that one is neither left-wing nor right-wing because "both have their pro and cons" etc. And it's not even a shame unless you insist on it, everyone has once been guilty of being a bourgeois ideologue, but you are not going to become a Communist simply because you're interested in it. Ask yourself: Why do you care about being called a Communist? In other words, why do you want to identify with Communism, what makes you personally predisposed to our tradition? There is no non-partisan knowledge, every truth is practical. In order to be a Communist you have to relate it to your own life, you have to feel personally oppressed by and dissatisfied with the current order of things. Capitalism, not as an abstract economic category but as a term for the totality of life-practice in the present, needs to literally break your heart before you can even strive to speak and act for all the oppressed masses helplessly trying to cope with their discontent. If your only reason to advocate Communism is that you "like the idea of everyone being equal" or because of any other abstract bullshit - do not only us but also yourself a favor and simply don't care about Communism. Live on, don't even bother with radical Leftists, and hope that everything you take for granted in your life will survive us barbarians.
That's a bullshit,of course,your views are convulated,so they cannot be called reactionary or progressive.Convulated because of your political illiteracy,don't be offended on my words. You are following some tipical bourgeois delusions,for example:
The idea of patriotism and national identity is not the idea of right wingers,it is not contrary to communism,for example.Communism rejects chauvinism - the idea of national superiority, but not patriotism - the love of your country and people.I can add more: real internationalism is impossible without patriotism ,because how can you like other peoples if you do not like your own?
Why if there were and still there are some countries that live under the lower stage of communism?
Never mind,I don't understand it too.
Private property has nothing to do with the principle "to each according to his ability" ,this is the principle of the lower stage of communism where everyone works not for a private owner but for society and gets according his labor.
That's a good idea.I wish that you have a suссess!
Any anti-communist is a dog. - Jean-Paul Sartre.
An unaffiliated person willing to learn.
The idea that communists want everyone to be paid the same for different work is nothing but bourgeois propaganda.
The confusion comes from misunderstanding class. To understand the revolutionary left, you must understand class.
Class has more to do with the source of your income than its amount. Society exists for production, and so a society's members are classified by their role in production, i.e. their class.
For example, under capitalism, we have a group of people (i.e., the bourgeoisie) who own capital and don't necessarily have to produce anything, enjoying instead the fruits of their employees' labor. The employees are people who don't own that kind of capital (i.e., the proletariat) and who, to survive, have to sell their labor.
Communists do indeed wish to abolish class. That doesn't mean everyone receiving the same income for different work; it means workers owning, directly or indirectly, the means of production on which they work.
It will also serve you well to understand property. Be careful not to confuse private property with personal property. "Private property" does not mean the simple possessions of a person, but the ownership of productive property, i.e. property which produces income for the owner, such as corporate ownership, share ownership, land ownership and, in the case of slave society, slave ownership.
I apologize, but you are dead wrong. National identity is tied to capitalism. I see no real need to distinguish between the patriot and the nationalist, as both are reactionary manifestations of bourgeois control. You must understand that capitalists are themselves internationalists. Do you think they are beholden to their countrymen? The only people beholden to their countrymen are the proles, and it's this way for a reason. Patriotism serves only to retard class-consciousness among the international workers.
What is "peoples"? The very concept is capitalistic. Therefore the opposite rings true: until the very concept is rejected, one cannot be truly loyal to all humanity, at least not in any real or useful sense.
BTW, patriotism is a dialectical combination of private and public interests, of the unity of a person and society.Patriotism lies not only in the respect for the historical past of your nation,it's cultural traditions, in willingness to defend independence of your country in the face of the invaders, to sacrifice lives for freedom,but also in a critical attitude to the existing social injustice.Patriotism of revolutionaries comes from the hatred of the ruling order,of the parasitic top of society.This is a proletarian view on patriotism.It's clear that bourgeoisie see patriotism in a different way.
As for nationalism, obviously,that it can be different. There is enlightened, progressive nationalism,nationalism of Gandhi, Sun Yat-sen, Mandela,and btw, nationalism of Marx and Engels, who saw the purpose of the revolution of 1848 in the national unity of Germany ; and there is nationalism of a Black Hundred, xenophobic, tribal, ethnic, akin to racism. In fact - they are two different phenomena often called one term.
Any anti-communist is a dog. - Jean-Paul Sartre.
This premise of rewards-for-labor conflicts with the aim of producing-for-human-need (because should materials produced go to the *suppliers* of the liberated-labor that produced it, or should they go to those who are *demanding* the stuff that's produced -- ?).
Thank you for your reply, and I do agree and will take your advice. Still I'll stick around, not to support but to learn, and not to make a fool out of myself in the future.
You are pretty reactionary my friend, but I think most of that is probably just nurture and spooks implanted in your mind.
Heres an introduction on (Social) anarchism (video series): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiaN...p7FniqCbmynZeq
A beginner's reading guide of Marxism: https://www.marxists.org/subject/students/index.htm
Marxist FAQ: http://marxistpedia.mwzip.com/wiki/A_Marxist_FAQ
TL;DR version here ----> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...695D99C91FC6F7
Be aware that there are many different strains of Marxism, and there are strains of Marxism that are fused with more Anarchist and Free-Market thought. There's also more authoritarian stuff like Maoism and Stalinism.
Actually, you've got communism completely backwards. It is "FROM each according to his ability to each according to his NEEDS".
So yes, you are a reactionary.
From each according to ability. To each according to production.
The other comes much later.
From each according to his ability to each according to his needs. Got it.
I have a standing critique of this great-sounding axiom, though -- here's from a past thread on the topic:
http://www.revleft.com/vb/threads/19...76#post2871676
Pies Must Line Up
