I’ve been doing some heavy political theory posting here. Some time ago I wanted to get a better understanding of what exactly Fascism was since the word ‘Fascist’ gets thrown around as a catch-all epithet so easily. I have read a few books on the subject, but in doing so, noted that many of the fascists originally started out as Marxists. So I’ve also been trying to get a better handle on Marxism. I went to marxists.org and checked out their essential reading list. I’m going through the first volume of what I call the commie classics. It contains the Communist Manifesto by Marx, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Engels, The State and Revolution by Lenin, and Transitional Program by Trotsky.

I posted a review with some commentary on Engels’ work. I’ve just finished up my notes on Lenin’s The State and Revolution. Since it was much longer, I’m not sure if maybe rather than posting my notes, I should just do a summary. The summary would force me to do the work of thinking it through and putting it all together, so I may do that.

These works are interesting to me, if not much fun to read. There is also a LOT of it. I take copious notes, and summarize them as I go, so that I’ll grasp more of it. Like any philosophical work, you have to get a grip on the language they use. Once you get that, the reading goes faster, but if you gloss over it, you remain perpetually lost. So I invest the time to really understand what they’re saying.

To be honest, while I follow the arguments Marx et al make, some of the assertions they take for granted don’t fly. And then of course there is the fact that they were making predictions about the future of a capitalism and socialism that they were confident would occur, but we know now things didn’t play out that way. But I’m still struck by how many people accept this stuff almost religiously 170 years on, after all the dismal failures of its predictions, and the untold misery Marxism and its variants has brought into the world.