I may have mentioned this before, but listening to Avakian reminded me of a line from poet Gary Snyder's broadside from 1969 reprinted in his great collection Turtle Island: "Since it doesn't seem practical or even desirable to think that direct bloody force will achieve much, it would be best to consider this a continuing 'revolution of consciousness' which will be won not by guns but by seizing the key images, myths, archetypes, eschatologies, and ecstasies so that life won't seem worth living unless one's on the transforming energy's side."
Avakian is one of those key archetypes, a writer/activists who sees things clearly, and an agent of the "transforming energy" if ever there was one. I also count Chris Hedges, his colleague Dwyane Booth, aka, Mr. Fish, the great Robert Scheer, Wendell Berry, and of course Paul Street in that company. Avakian's vision might seem "pollyannishly dream like" to Jazzme, but it strikes me as the only possible roadmap for a livable future. Now more than ever, failure to create an alternative society based on eco-socialist and truly democratic principles will indeed mean "the common ruin of all" as Marx and Engels predicted. It's going to be, like always, a struggle getting things going in earnest and making the "ecological view" the new standard for human affairs, but as reality in the form of climate crisis continues to assert itself, the necessity for total revolution will eventually be obvious to enough humans to realize that an evolutionary path to a happy destiny is not compatible with the ethos of capitalist exploitation. Anyway, thanks for consistently attempting to expand human consciousness about these life-and-death matters in the face of political and cultural resistance based on greed, ignorance and bullshit.
Hedges and Avakian are in very, very different spaces on numerous matters though of course all of us opponents of US capitalism and imperialism have a considerable degree of overlap/shared space.
For what it's worth I fully expect a bunch of weirdness and nonsense in response to this three part series. Many if not most left folks in the US have a very hard time with understanding much less actually advocating real revolution, strange as that might at first sound. The learned helplessness and giving up instinct are quite entrenched. Bring up revolution and actual communism and you look and sound like a Martian to them. Take me to your leader! Well I'm here to help. It's time to put away childish things. The shit has hit the fan.
That is neat. I;d start wqth the guy's bio, From Ike to Mao. It's a good read and context for any of his theoretical works. Even old New Lefties who loathe Avakian say "the guy was not dumb." LOL.
Ordered: From Ike to Mao Amazon $6
Thanks for the advice
Cheers
It's a good read. Lots of time on his youth.
I may have mentioned this before, but listening to Avakian reminded me of a line from poet Gary Snyder's broadside from 1969 reprinted in his great collection Turtle Island: "Since it doesn't seem practical or even desirable to think that direct bloody force will achieve much, it would be best to consider this a continuing 'revolution of consciousness' which will be won not by guns but by seizing the key images, myths, archetypes, eschatologies, and ecstasies so that life won't seem worth living unless one's on the transforming energy's side."
Avakian is one of those key archetypes, a writer/activists who sees things clearly, and an agent of the "transforming energy" if ever there was one. I also count Chris Hedges, his colleague Dwyane Booth, aka, Mr. Fish, the great Robert Scheer, Wendell Berry, and of course Paul Street in that company. Avakian's vision might seem "pollyannishly dream like" to Jazzme, but it strikes me as the only possible roadmap for a livable future. Now more than ever, failure to create an alternative society based on eco-socialist and truly democratic principles will indeed mean "the common ruin of all" as Marx and Engels predicted. It's going to be, like always, a struggle getting things going in earnest and making the "ecological view" the new standard for human affairs, but as reality in the form of climate crisis continues to assert itself, the necessity for total revolution will eventually be obvious to enough humans to realize that an evolutionary path to a happy destiny is not compatible with the ethos of capitalist exploitation. Anyway, thanks for consistently attempting to expand human consciousness about these life-and-death matters in the face of political and cultural resistance based on greed, ignorance and bullshit.
Hedges and Avakian are in very, very different spaces on numerous matters though of course all of us opponents of US capitalism and imperialism have a considerable degree of overlap/shared space.
Hi Paul
Lots to digest here. Your prose radically different from usual style. It's a revolutionary step for me to pivot from:
-Hopefully optimistic the progressives in US politics build their numbers high enough to withstand the neocon assault in Congress
........and....
-rallying behind Revcom which ideals seem pollyannishly dream like.
Peace
PS sorry to disappoint
For what it's worth I fully expect a bunch of weirdness and nonsense in response to this three part series. Many if not most left folks in the US have a very hard time with understanding much less actually advocating real revolution, strange as that might at first sound. The learned helplessness and giving up instinct are quite entrenched. Bring up revolution and actual communism and you look and sound like a Martian to them. Take me to your leader! Well I'm here to help. It's time to put away childish things. The shit has hit the fan.
And you have read which core Avakian and Revcom documents? Please list in chronological order of publication....
I haven't read any Avakain books/publications nor have I read Revcom literature....but I will.
Than.....I'll get back with you.
LOL Peace
That is neat. I;d start wqth the guy's bio, From Ike to Mao. It's a good read and context for any of his theoretical works. Even old New Lefties who loathe Avakian say "the guy was not dumb." LOL.
depressing but not disappointing. The Republicans are fascist now, not Neocon.
Neocon?! Where have you been in the last decade plus?!