FoL chapter 9 - Style in Work posted:But Russian revolutionary sweep has every chance of degenerating in practice into empty "revolutionary" Manilovism if it is not combined with American efficiency in work. Examples of this degeneration are only too numerous. Who does not know the disease of "revolutionary" scheme concocting and "revolutionary" plan drafting, which springs from the belief in the power of decrees to arrange everything and re-make everything? A Russian writer, I. Ehrenburg, in his story The Percommon (The Perfect Communist Man), has portrayed the type of a "Bolshevik" afflicted with this disease, who set himself the task of finding a formula for the ideally perfect man and...became "submerged" in this "work." The story contains a great exaggeration, but it certainly gives a correct likeness of the disease. But no one, I think, has so ruthlessly and bitterly ridiculed those afflicted with this disease as Lenin. Lenin stigmatised this morbid belief in concocting schemes and in turning out decrees as "communist vainglory."
"Communist vainglory," says Lenin, "means that a man, who is a member of the Communist Party, and has not yet been purged from it, imagines that he can solve all his problems by issuing communist decrees" (see Vol. XXVII, pp. 50-51).
Lenin usually contrasted hollow "revolutionary" phrasemongering with plain everyday work, thus emphasising that "revolutionary" scheme concocting is repugnant to the spirit and the letter of true Leninism.
" "Fewer pompous phrases, more plain, everyday work..." says Lenin.
" "Less political fireworks and more attention to the simplest but vital...facts of communist construction..." (see Vol. XXIV, pp. 343 and 335).
plain everyday work like having a bloody agenda before meetings
also the importance of doing things with comrades that isnt the "extemely communism" bit, some sort of social communist recreation - like hang out, go to the pub, chat informally, do some exercise together, play football, watch a movie, organise an outing, whatever just something so that you can hang out together and bond as human beings and communists outside of your meeting/study group and practical work and it pays off in the other stuff.
e: they're also obsessed with bourgeois academia and being acknowledged and history/theory shit. and constantly waffle between 'what about video games under communism' and 'how do we make a revolution in America right now' with no humility at all.
Edited by babyhueypnewton ()
tears posted:also the importance of doing things with comrades that isnt the "extemely communism" bit, some sort of social communist recreation - like hang out, go to the pub, chat informally, do some exercise together, play football, watch a movie, organise an outing, whatever just something so that you can hang out together and bond as human beings and communists outside of your meeting/study group and practical work and it pays off in the other stuff.
Yeah this stuff is really great for building group solidarity. It's also good for being active and visible in your community: people will be more likely to take you seriously as angry demonstrators if they see that you're regular people that do active healthy things AND angry demonstrators who care about something. It humanizes you and creates a way to relate to people that cleaves across extreme political alienation.
babyhueypnewton posted:I post on reddit sometimes to fuck with people and the truth of what shriekingviolet said is so clear now. it's one of those things everyone knows but when it's systematized it explains so much. just talking to people who consider themselves radical communists, they literally cannot admit to not knowing something. the whole thing is about ego and jockeying for status. everything they say reeks of petty-bourgeois moralism and frustration, and the worst thing about it is they aren't even good at knowing things. you'd think people obsessed with theory and knowledge would do research but like steg pointed out any real effort to study is rebuffed because it would involve specialization which i guess implies not knowing about things that aren't your specialization. sorry for rambling but i've been removed from the american left for a long time so these obvious things are less obvious to me.
e: they're also obsessed with bourgeois academia and being acknowledged and history/theory shit. and constantly waffle between 'what about video games under communism' and 'how do we make a revolution in America right now' with no humility at all.
this is something communists do but dont get too frustrated about it because its fairly universal imo. i got told off at work by my boss recently because i occasionally admit to customers that i dont know something and then ill look it up on my smartphone to try to confirm or correct my educated guess. apparently thats a bad look for the customers paying for my expertise? even though its a perfectly reasonable thing to do when im not 100% sure?
lately ive been trying to specialise more (hence my thread about straya) and im finding it very useful.
getfiscal posted:Wow... rude!
it's been a week like that
Makeshift_Swahili posted:lately ive been trying to specialise more (hence my thread about straya) and im finding it very useful.
actually knowing stuff begins at home