/lit/ - Literature

>>15807267
>I also find it interesting those whom I would be absolutely confident in calling geniuses often appear to be marxists/socialists such as einstein, malcolm x, wittgenstein, joyce, kafka, turing, etc. Although I don't think this has any significance beyond being a useless interesting fact.
Completely agree. Wittgenstein or someone else equally funny allegedly said, "Marxism doesn't work in theory but it does in practice" which I love. I can't remember who it was though.

I definitely think there are many bad Soc-Dems (*cough* all of Germany since 1919), but I also think if we look at the Nordics they have had a tremendous amount of success; I think Finland can safely be considered one of the few countries to have transitioned from periphery to core during the 20th century, and while it is easy to say that they had white privilege etc., that is a remarkable achievement for class struggle Social Democracy (one not replicated in the Eastern Bloc, by and large). In addition, I notice that while people try to get epic about the Nordics benefiting from imperialism, they have had a remarkable history of anti-imperialism and anti-racism (with multiple leaders having to be assassinated by the imperialist powers). Obviously Sweden alone can't turn the tide in the world, especially given that the Right has been in power recently, but per capita I think Nordics Social Democrats have done more to raise the standard of living of workers both within and without their country in the past 100 years than anyone else.

I have nothing but respect for the various Communist revolutionaries, I just wonder if by their very nature a Kollontai or a Luxemburg will never come out on top; that is, since all revolutions are civil wars, what are the odds that the most effective civil war operator is also someone willing dissolve their own authority after. I'm not trying to insult Lenin, Trotsky, Lin Biao, etc., because I think the CCP's work stopping foreign imperialism has allowed China to finally start to catch up, but I also believe that there will have to be another revolution in that country once the economy is built up to full capitalist production.

Of course, my whole theory of change is predicated on the American Empire imploding without being replaced by someone else. It's not a coincidence that my hero, Evo Morales, got owned while a more """authoritarian""" (AKA willing to play power politics with his elite) Maduro has been able to fight off getting couped.

I'm guessing we don't really disagree that much, just wanted to share some more thoughts while I'm shouting into the void.

Yeah Sartre is obviously smart, it's just funny I can't name anything he added to the conversation.