Is Marxism an Entitlement Complex Masquerading as a Political Philosophy?

[@ImBalance]

It’s reactionary identity politics like any other (like the Trump-ism we are worryingly seeing affecting the US)

[@nikokalandadze9675]

From the looks of it, you are willing to engage in a good faith discussion about Marxism/Socialism, and this is very rare to see, although very commendable. Personally, I view the world through a handful of very simple social axioms (cultural, moral, scientific) - of which I was taught in a capitalist society and which are also disregarded on a daily basis in fits of immense hypocrisy (or justified by lazy/dishonest means). I have not been a socialist for a long time, maybe 2 years at the time of writing this, but the transition was very simple and, in retrospect, inevitable. The point you make about every practical application of socialist state planning failing is demonstrably incorrect and dishonest, although it is basically spouted as divine gospel around the globe and believing this is an easy trap to fall for. As an example, I live in a post soviet country and my entire life was spent hearing nothing but terrible stories about the times past, and how an age of prosperity is soon due. As a child I did not question the legitimacy of the slander, why would I - the USSR had annexed my country after all, this was a binary evil. After actually learning history and seeing a different perspective, instead of regurgitating the accepted "truth", it became evident that the USSR, with it's countless faults, still achieved spectacular feats, and lifted millions of people basically from the middle ages. I do not wish for the USSR to return, as their sociological policies were blatantly wrong (Such as the russification of all member states and cultural repressions) and fueled alienation, that said, even to this day, the infrastructure built by the soviets is used millions of people. The homes that are so often made fun of, as they were built 50 years ago and nobody has renovated them since, housed and to this day house millions. I believe a socialist reality is possible, it is not supposed to be a Utopia, rather, it is our duty to try and justly distribute the resources created by mankind. And to answer the question, no, Marxism or socialism is definitely not an entitlement complex. If creating a more rational economic system entails compromise, I will happily accept, as for me humans are do not live in just Europe or America, but everywhere else as well (see The Unequal Exchange, it is pretty eye opening)

[@Somewhat_Scientific]

This is a wonderful response. Thank you for taking the time. I have had many comments that have had me thinking about many of my assumptions. (I even went to the library today to get a couple of books.) Your perspective is also very interesting to me. I will consider your points over the coming days and weeks. I think there may well be a follow to this video at some point.

[@jodikoberinski1639]

Marxism is a critique of capitalism and offers theoretical foundations for further exploration - Labour theory of value; theory of alienation; his explication of historical materialism. These tools of inquiry have been expanded upon over the past 150years as is the case with European philosophy…. And to understand Marxist analysis today one also reads Luckacs, Gramsci, Marcuse, Sartre, Panitch, and many many others who’ve further developed ideas we associate with Marx and Engels. Reading these works without the benefit of a knowledgeable community of scholars is absolutely possible but renders the texts all the more challenging - Marx’s ideas and exist in a context and without knowledge of that context it’s is reaaalllyyy easy to engage in what I call “linguistic fundamentalism” - interpreting groups of words based on dictionary definitions of those words and not paying attention to how a group of words is used by their author …. Particularly where the phrase is not explained in a text because those using it in the text have disciplinary knowledge about how those words work in the text within the discipline. This is not an elitist appeal to university… it is an acknowledgement that understanding such texts requires a community of scholars we should ALL have access to as part of our universal education.

[@joecota2644]

Yeah when your first argument is " Its too mean" or " Some capitalism is good" i think your missing the point which is the better ment of society. Again people will always matter more then property or profit, any other mindset leads to fasiscm

[@Somewhat_Scientific]

After having, what could politely be called a thorough dressing down, I have a lot of reading ahead of me.

[@reedrichards8677]

define fascism

[@Anonymous-x7l]

Very good video, I look forward to your channel becoming bigger, it got so much potential

[@Somewhat_Scientific]

Thank you very much for your kind words.

[@dominicpossingham4000]

Thank you for the video. Just some thoughts Marxism does try to account for the interdependences between workers, managers, financiers and entrepreneurs. Workers rely on the above for wages and livelihood, but this reliance is seen as a product of the alienation and dispossession of workers from the means of production. Conversely those who are higher up within the ownership of companies etc and their intermediaries depend on workers to generate surplus value, which is the foundation of profit. Marxism does not dispute this relationship. It frames it within a broader conservation of wealth disparity within society and the inherent inequality between a minority of people born into wealth, and usually some form of ownership of the means of production, and the majority who statically no matter their hard work will be vastly more improvised simply by the position of their birth. The above is not ideological but born from statistics that can be shown over the last 60 years. In times of liberal socialism wealth disparity decreases due to wealth redistribution through means such as taxes by the state. In times of state capture by private organisations and their owners this gap widens as the majority are given little opportunity to education, stable housing, medicine or food as these non state organisation privatise these services. Marxism does not say that managers ect are not hard working, only that the system they operate within is inherently unequal, undemocratic and offers little room for recognition of workers hard work or talents. In a socialist or communist society, the means of production would be collectively owned, eliminating the hierarchical relationships between workers, managers, investors, and entrepreneurs. This is the aim of these ideologies, not to disregards individuals work currently but to attempt to give peoples more meaningful and fair forms of it. Think the 8 hour working week, black and women’s right to equal pay and a minimum wage, these are all forms of progress founded by unions which hold socialist and when radical Marxist ideals. Hope this provides some context and wishing you a lovely day.

[@Somewhat_Scientific]

I really appreciate the detailed response. Thank you. I will do some (a lot) more reading on this. I think I had read some pretty biased books, are there any you would recommend?

[@dominicpossingham4000]

@@Somewhat_Scientific Thanks for your kind response. I would recommend Richard Wolf for economics and perhaps Noam Chomsky for social theory, as there are many accessible videos for them both on KZbin. In terms of books, it's a wide field, so hard to recommend however accessible journalism sites such as Jacobin or news sites such as democracy now can offer insight into a left framing of social issues including economic ones. Hope this is useful and sorry it doesnt address the question, the field of literature is just too dense to recommend one of the top of me head.

[@Rfp601]

No

[@yogurtandtea]

No (video over)

[@ziad_jkhan]

May be have a look at the material presented by cathartic humania as a potentially viable alternative

[@Somewhat_Scientific]

Thank you, I will look into it

[@Somewhat_Scientific]

As always, thank you for watching.

[@zach8590]

Really good video man, I was thinking actually about making this kind of video so its really awesome to see like-minded individuals

[@zach8590]

Also I can defenitly see your channel becoming big. If you included some visuals (I know this can be time consuming) to accomidate the information being presented. I think you can even hire some people to make visuals or rely on AI tools

[@Somewhat_Scientific]

Thank you. I am slowly learning to use DaVinci resolve and Gimp. I hope to improve the visual presentation over time.

[@zach8590]

Honestly its interesting looking at Marx's early life to get a bit more insight into his though process. I think he is a chronic materialist that spent his parents money, smoked his lungs away, and did not contribute much other than make an ideology based on entitlment and devoid of hard work.

[@justice4549]

Please cite any source or give any evidence that communism is “anti hard work” lol. Do you think a communist society wouldn’t have manual laborers, plumbers, roofers, electricians and the like? Do you think a communist society wouldn’t have a need for factories or production? Is that not “hard work” in your eyes? I think it would be insight for you to provide us with the information of what you do for your line of work as well. I doubt you’re some blue collar steel mill worker.