US campus protests inspire wave of international action as French university occupied by pro-Palestine activists’
US campus protests inspire wave of international action as French university occupied by pro-Palestine activists’
Over 100 students at NYU and Columbia have been arrested this past week over pro-Palestinian protest encampments
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This is what the State is afraid of: not that people will protest Israel's actions, but that the left might organize trans-nationally and demand better from their governments.
They've been happy to let the political Right metastatize because at least fascism can be good for business, but they're terrified of the rest of us realizing the we have the numbers and that the rich need us more than we need them.
They had a narrow escape in 2008 and spent the last decade and a bit stoking culture wars. The last thing the west wants is it's own Arab Spring.
Who is terrified of what? Which numbers? Why do the rich need us so bad? What about, for example, the 1/2 voting shit like Trump?
If only there was a body of literature explaining the theoretical underpinnings of Marxism.
I don’t mean to be a dick. Gramsci is a bit of a tough read but his works are worth reading (or even just getting a summary of). Marx is a philosopher who never did any of the evils of communism. He (and Engels) simply described capitalism and then some ideas on what to change. Were they correct? I don’t know. But I do know my most conservative Econ professors assigned us Marx readings because you cannot understand economics without understanding Marx.
Understanding multiple frameworks (even those you think are wrong) is healthy. I think Ayn Rand blows goats compared to Adam Smith and Marx but I still read enough of her bullshit to know I disagreed. Adam Smith hated absentee landlords more than Marx did.
Edit: I changed Kant to Adam Smith to keep on topic.
This was an informative take, thank you. I often struggle with understanding the “big picture” of economics and this was helpful, at least to me.
It’s also important to understand that “Marxism” means different things in a peasant farmer context than it does in an industrial context. It’s been extended to places and contexts and it’s not always appropriate to do that. But the framework of understanding class was definitely necessary and I think is still appropriate.
Keynes and Friedman are also required reading for understanding economies. And philosophy. Socrates was wrong about everything but we still read his works because they were influential and shaped history. “Philosophy” writ large is ultimately physics (like everything) but no one person can understand everything so we focus and stay humble.
Rich people need blue & white collar workers and poor people to continue to work or else the economy stops.
That's an argument I often make. At its fundamental core capitalism will never survive without the workers to support it ... whereas humans survived millennia without any form of organized capitalism.
It's not the 'ism's that produce the capital. It's the laborers. The 'ism's just dictate who gets the benefits.