"Socialism is not bread alone" - Any socialists in the house? Is there any future on England's dreaming?

just that as one of ilx's most prolific posters, you are seldom seen on the politics threads (i think?)

and judging by yr posts on the nij thread, you have a great reservoir of feeling for injustice etc, maybe a nascent enrapturement w/ ~politics~ itself, preceding any variety thereof, tho obviously trot splinter groups have always done a roaring trade among entrylevs

i dunno enough about politics itself, but i suspect it's deathly as hell, whether the clegg-eichmann adjudants, or the more sepulchral osborne-mugabe types

god i sound pretty fucking sure of myself for someone with none of the answers

wd be up for a chairman mao ilx reading group tho

oh, socialists. they have an answer for everything.

unlike them however, we have the RIGHT answers for everything.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/killer-robot.jpg

we are curious: how is that robot holding the gun? are those tubes vacuum-powered?

I don't really bother with the politics threads because I'd get laughed off them. I know a little more than it first appears. I was genuinely pleasantly surprised with how cool this HQ and its inhabitant were and I'm by no means a completely impressionable (quite QUITE the opposite) - the whole shebang was really appealing and I say this as someone who's been repulsed by virtually every political faction he's known (aforementioned two ghastly camps indeed).

Your tone is a teeny bit patronising but I'll let it pass as you clearly DO know what yr talking about. But I'm not QUITE entrylev - I'm just really, really fucking antagonistic towards mainstream political parties and the mainstream media and this combined with my highly excitable conversational style means I'm frequently found with my pants around my ankles.

Have been given a free copy of the academic writings of Marx and an overview of socialism. Will devour. I have not disengaged skepticism, rest assured. Perhaps this isn't for me either. But I'm fucked if I know what else is.

"a completely impressionable" fuck it's time for bed isn't it

[excuse me for any incoherence / completely missing points, I am somewhat inebriated] Louis are you familiar with the theory of accelerationism? It's basically the idea that capitalism allowed to run wild will tear itself apart and as such that's what 'we' communists/socialists should do. To me it's an essentially awful idea (if we do that then capitalism will certainly end, but only with humanity as a whole), but if you're feeling theory-inclined then it may have points of interest based on what you're saying here.

not really heard that. this is more the theory that without violence the world's people will reject by consensus the capitalist ethos. very hard to imagine, but compelling. will possibly require SIGNS of the Great Collapse - or at least, enough evidence that it's imminent, before it actually happens.

ah that's something I accept, although by that point I'm sure it will be too late. As much as I'd like to believe it, I'm an utter pessimist about serious positive revolution (fuck a Badiou and such), and so have no fundamental political beliefs beyond "we're fucked", which isn't the best place to be.

I dunno if I really buy the idea that the transition to socialism would ever come about through, like, a collective drift leftwards in the opinions of a voting public -- feels like conscious 'political identifications' are still too intimately tied to class positions and ways of life for such a thing to happen without the kind of massive economic hardship that would have people taking the revolution into their own hands... and then u probably just end up with fascism :(

that's why organization and agitation starts pre-opening-of-the-seals

the clock comma it is ticking

btw no joke I have just been reading exit mundi again

money's on....um...umm...

would be pretty cool if they all marvellously coalesced in one moment.

wait don't pull the plug yet I wanna check out this fucking enormous tsunami while the meteor streaks across the sky and a mushroom cloud ascends

just really, really fucking antagonistic towards mainstream political parties and the mainstream media

they don't get a lot of love round here tho! a really enthusiastic ED4LYFE labourite would be an interesting addition to dem not..... (assuming tories and libs wd get chased off pretty quickly)

wouldn't it be funny if the world ended now

I'd have a split-second of really wishing I'd not decided to be platonic friends with that girl after all, at least for toni...

xpost to HOOS: right... I'm just saying, the idea of "rejecting by consensus the capitalist ethos", while nice and certainly not implausible, is basically an empty gesture outside the context of a democratic system that specifically attaches value to consensus, which system as it presently exists is so thoroughly intertwined with/compromised by capitalism that I can't really imagine how it would retain its legitimacy and control during the period where such a consensus is emerging -- and if democracy has collapsed by the time everyone finally agrees that capitalism sux, then you're sort of back to square 1

ok nakhchivan maybe my dilettantish charms will invigorate the british politics thread and spur it to yet greater heights of fulminating discontent

bernard snowy I think localised consensus would have to surrogate for a wider global socialism in the early stages, I'm talking people literally together in a barn wondering what the fuck the world is coming to, raising their hands to vote

we could be doing with a bitter LibDem, although the excuse-making LibDem would be even more fun.

I am not entirely opposed to Zizek / Badiou / etc in their particular revolutionary thoughts, besides the fact that they're at heart disgusting fascists, which I'm not very down with. Therefore I resort to the 'we're fucked' line of thinking.

t's basically the idea that capitalism allowed to run wild will tear itself apart and as such that's what 'we' communists/socialists should do

that is, do nothing, tho capitalism will probably right itself for the time being, as acephalic world-devouring colossi are wont to do

srsly tho i've read the blogs on acclrtnsm, and it's a huge improvement on most leftism cuz it's ~avowedly~ fanciful and quietistic

hahaha the group whose HQ I stormed today subscribe to something called 'impossibilism' which is kinda awesomely apt

ok, lol

de leon!! xp

i did not know people still fucked w/dude

xposts to nakh ya that sounds about right. I don't know how much credit we can give to something for being 'interesting' when it's also utterly and dangerously wrong, but hey. I'm pretty lazy, I'm all for things that don't involve any effort.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impossibilism

cornerstone of the 100-strong buncha tricksy british dudes whose internationalist movements appeal so

sometimes in moments of difficulty, when the true flame of the dialectic offers no hope, i turn to the sky and ask, 'what would pol pot do?'

so anyway why are you guys still awake.

Socialist Party of Great Britain
Leader none
Founded 1904
Headquarters Clapham, London
Ideology Impossibilism

See also

Possibilism

irl lol

now you see why I like it so much xp also lolling

Socialist Party of Great Britain
Leader noneLJ
Founded 1904
Headquarters Clapham, London
Ideology Impossibilism

even a "localized consensus" against capitalism is only really progressive if it's also a consensus around some concrete positive program or organization... seems less important to me that everyone be on the same page about who the enemy is and why shit is so fucked than that they agree on WHAT IS TO BE DONE, i.e. finding new egalitarian methods to organize a relatively open collective existence outside of the capitalist system

btw the SPGB has made a short film! and here it is (first US stream works): http://socialist-tv.com/

will watch it tomorrow and report back

nakhchivan the idea of a leader is ttly anathema to this crowd!! although maybe they just haven't met the *right* leader yet

that's what i'm saying

like I would gladly let some hippie burnout or obama voter eat some of my vegetables and make me shoes out of hemp -- I just wouldn't trust them with the keys to my tank

r u suggestin that LJ = Stalin 4 the Skins era?

(to nakhchivan)

WHAT IS TO BE DONE, i.e. finding new egalitarian methods to organize a relatively open collective existence outside of the capitalist system

this is pretty much 95% of what this guy discussed - each infrastructural and governing system would be run differently by a committee of field experts I think - gift economy, surplusses offered to other regions, etc etc

military to be reduced and converted to a troubleshooting natural disaster cracksquad

btw <3 for your edited version but if you'd been rly slick it'd have been amended to Charlton, London

srsly how about we get this googleproofed and watch lj's entryist ascendancy within the moribund clapham (pronounced clayfum) socialist scene

careful now I might fail their prohibitive entrance exam

it is unproductive and unrealistic to expect critical thinking skills from prospective recruits. propaganda and coercion are preferable. it is not the quality of recruits, but the quantity that matters.

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs30/f/2009/251/2/6/MUSE___Resistance_by_DigiQ8.jpg

i really want a "das socialist!" animated gif, but the internet seems to have not produced one yet. sad.

lol nrq

how is the revolution going to manage while you're swanning about in new zealand?

Also btw I had no idea LJ used to/still is? a trot

not sure he's into reds, but ruthless amoral pols are definitely his thing:p

Has anyone told him?

No need. He knows.

LJ do you still have the trots?