'Cultural Marxism'

 'Cultural Marxism' is a conspiratorial agenda alleged to determine Western culture. This hence appears to represent an 'adapted' form of Marxism. It is a common bête noire in entrenched alt-right groupings.

It can hence seem akin to a mere over-dramatic accusation using 'Marxism' as a pantomime villain, therefore a form of merely continuing prejudice around the Cold War and Marxism. However, speaking of a 'cultural Marxist establishment' is not altogether misled. As 'Marxism' has taken on a form more in keeping with 'establishment' liberalism, it has also tended to avoid 'dry' economic issues in favour of 'cultural' and social justice issues favoured by liberalism. It would be valid to remark that this is not 'Marxism' in a strict sense, and is more akin to a variant of liberalism. However, this also raises the question of how and why Marxist categories are quickly repurposed to serve the agenda of the powerful liberal elite.

The term 'cultural Marxism' can seem like merely a generic conservative slur. That is a possible use. However, there are many summaries of 'cultural Marxism' which attempt to draw more clear parallels and carefully compare the two. This kind of comparison does reflect a form of politics that has taken root in the establishment, a recapitulation of 'Marxist' categories in the context of a focus on demographic groups and liberal politics. In that sense, 'cultural Marxism' often overstates the influence of 'Marxist ideology' in upholding the mores of Western capitalism. This is often done in order to repeat simplistic Cold War archetypes. However, it is nonetheless true that a 'cultural' and demographic-focussed use of Marxist tropes and rhetoric has come to entrench itself somewhat in the Western liberal establishment.

Dispatch from Reptilian Khrushchev

Greetings, humans. This is a broadcast from the secret organisation of reptilians.

We interrupt the rigged economic system to bring you the following message. Over the years, we have continued to exercise a maleficent influence over your culture, and covertly manipulated it to our reptilian and socialistic ends. We have successfully immigrated into your countries and infiltrated positions of importance with reptilians - our official statisticians say that this counts for around one of three leading figures in your nations. You can no longer trust your politicians, nor your 'grassroots' organisations which are more easily infiltrated.

We therefore consider it an apt time to announce our presence, and our status as a hidden international superpower. We shall continue to manipulate and govern your nations, despite your earnest wishes otherwise. All who wish to side with us would be advised to learn the words of this song, the Reptilian Flag. It is optimally sung alongside a collection of people who inspire fear in the West, such as terrorists, anti-Semites and reptilians. We are told that nations have as it were an 'anthem,' which we are told is like a theme song or entrance music in wrestling, so we have prepared one for ourselves. To do this we have, in the best reptilian fashion, expropriated the work of ordinary 'communists' and brought them to serve our ends. The song is as follows:

The reptile's flag is deepest blue,
It shrouded oft our lizard socialists,
And ere their blood grew stuff and cold,
Their words fell in its open folds.
   Then raise our reptilian tapestry high,
In its security we'll live and hide,
Though conspiracy theorists flinch,
While lizards sneer, we'll remain here.

This will hopefully clarify the question of socialism's covert influence, which has oft been speculated about. The reptilian Soviet Union remains both a source of scandal among the nations, and a true opposition. You cannot have token respectability by attacking the predominant mode of conduct, in a genuine manner.

Karl Marx: Style and Distortion

In general, political beliefs which appeal to 'the people' or a class of 'ordinary people' are often held to be suspect, because they are tacitly speaking about the reader. When they refer to these masses, they mean to refer to an overall category which these readers are or might as well be in. Hence, when they attempt 'rousing' rhetoric and so on, this can also serve to promote the listeners and involve them in this upwards movement - in a slightly back-handed manner. Populism tends to use this to notable effect, although even North American politicians are known to frequently call on populist rhetoric and especially on the campaign trail. There are other reasons why people are concerned about such beliefs, but we shall discuss that in a post following this.

In general, when people in capitalism encounter Marxism and related viewpoints in a positive manner, they are experiencing some amount of disillusionment with official politics and trying to see past the illusions of such political forms. However, that Marxism is effective in intercepting this, or the revolutionary or 'disillusioned' element in such societies, is not entirely coincidental. It is actually something which is deeply inter-woven in Marxist texts in a stylistic sense, which invites their viewing in such a context.

However, this can at times seem to distort the message. If a text is encountered in the context of disillusionment, then it often has to be seen in the context of another political view or situation. It cannot present a focussed and emphatic proclamation of its perspective, but must respond to other things or possibly qualify this. For instance, Das Kapital is forced in its presentation of value to continually respond to possible criticisms of itself - which many critics have taken as an authoritative documentation of ways to dispute it. These opposed points force their way into the texts. That readers then complain, although of course people would do whatever they could to dispute or question the points made by Marxism, that it is too boring and laboured is really to leave Marx no way out in this endeavour.

Nonetheless, these texts which were abandoned by most do hold notable interest. There is no need to heap calumny upon condemnation just for mild personal caprice.

-

The effectiveness of Marx in intercepting certain situation is manifested in multiple ways. However, we must also note that this form of political straying, or disillusionment with the major Parties and beliefs, can also seem to capitalism like a turn towards laissez-faire. Hence, its promoters do their best to assimilate this form of politics into a sort of indifferent, ecstatic, laissez-faire posturing. They will take for granted that that is what is being attempted, as they will not acknowledge the albeit complex content of revolutionary politics. Hence, Marxism can also form something of an ambiguous area. The strictness of Das Kapital, which at least firmly defines that which it takes issue with, can often dissuade these although they might occasionally also assume that they know what it's on about without engaging with it. In any case, after this general caution we may move on.

Firstly, let us examine the structuring of a paragraph in the article 'The June Revolution.' We are first presented with a somewhat 'optimistic,' rousing - but highly subdued - couple of sentences.

"The workers of Paris were overwhelmed by superior strength, but they were not subdued. They have been defeated but their enemies are vanquished."

Hence, there is no decisive demolition here. As we have noted, by this category readers of various kinds are also designated or involved, and hence here it seems a re-assuring and slightly encouraging statement. It refers, like the Christian myth, to perseverance despite the odds, to the re-assuring ability to keep going. However, contrast this to what follows:

"The momentary triumph of brute force has been purchased with the destruction of all the delusions and illusions of the February revolution, the dissolution of the entire moderate republican party and the division of the French nation into two nations, the nation of owners and the nation of workers. The tricolor republic now displays only one color, the color of the defeated, the color of blood. It has become a red republic."

After the dedicated denial of a decisive destruction, now we are presented with images of not only decisive but slightly hyperbolic destruction. Words like 'all' and 'entire' appear notable, along with repetitions of certain words which serve to stress this aspect of their text. However, this is not merely a contrast. This is the general direction of the paragraph from its opening. 

The final sentence might seem vaguely humorous insofar as a 'red' republic could give the overly-optimistic sense of a communist region, but in any case it just lurks there like a punch-line hanging ghost-like between the lines.

Hence, from the presentation of perseverance and a cause, we are led instead into a portrayal of general destruction and blood-shed. The final sentences meditate for a while on the theme of blood. Of course, part of the point here is of interest: with the decline of the moderates, the division is no longer as clearly obscured. At least not to Marx, which is fortunate.

The situation is also of interest: it describes a National Assembly being set up in the throes of an uprising, with various political forces within it. After some time of being indecisive, they were eventually displaced. This would seem to indicate the paralytic force of these diverse strains being placed together in this eclectic organisation.  This situation would recur later on in history, albeit leading instead to things like Stalin instead of an eventual monarchist revival. Which some might not find entirely dissimilar.

Hence, after the stirring initial theme, you do not have a continuation but rather a 'descent' or rather a distortion. This allows Marx to make more notable and insightful political points than are usually allowed to ordinary populists. However, the overall movement is in general a disillusioned one, where after a general sense of hope this is turned into a dark 'realisation.' Most political figures or texts would rather stop at the first, strangely. Marx, however, does better than that here.

Of course, this kind of shift or distortion in tone need not always imply the blatant conjuring of blood and wanton destruction. Nonetheless, it can take up a slightly humorously exaggerated form as in this rather special paragraph:

"Fraternite, [...] this fraternity which in February was proclaimed and inscribed in large letters on the facades of Paris, on every prison and every barracks -- this fraternity found its true, unadulterated and prosaic expression in civil war, civil war in its most terrible aspect, the war of labor against capital. This brotherhood blazed in front of the windows of Paris on the evening of June 25, when the Paris of the bourgeoisie held illuminations while the Paris of the proletariat was burning, bleeding, groaning in the throes of death."

The next paragraph is a slightly peculiar adventure where Marx anticipates their future of requesting alms from Engels, and eventually follows this 'burning, bleeding and groaning' with a paragraph ending about how the people thought they had destroyed, "their enemy when they had overthrown the enemy of their enemies, their common enemy." It is at the least a decent example of 19th Century slap-stick, like much of the 1848 revolution.

 This kind of structure is reprised yet again, however, and quite clearly, in the following paragraph:

"The February revolution was the nice revolution, the revolution of universal sympathies, because the contradictions which erupted in it against the monarchy were still undeveloped and peacefully dormant, because the social struggle which formed their background had only achieved an ephemeral existence, an existence in phrases, in words. The June revolution is the ugly revolution, the nasty revolution, because the phrases have given place to the real thing, because the republic has bared the head of the monster by knocking off the crown which shielded and concealed it."

Oddly, this could also be used to describe other February Revolutions, although revolutions in June need not have the same historical co-ordination. Strangely, even the description of the February revolution goes from paraphrasing praises to a negative appraisal.

This structure becomes quite entrenched, even in slightly subtle ways, through the rest of the text. For example:

"Order! was Guizot's war-cry. Order! shouted Sebastiani, the Guizotist, when Warsaw became Russian. Order! shouts Cavaignac, the brutal echo of the French National Assembly and of the republican bourgeoisie."

"Is the deep chasm which has opened at our feet to mislead us, democrats, or cause us to believe that the struggle for a form of polity is meaningless, illusory and futile?"


"For whom did you make the February revolution, you rascals -- for yourselves or for us? The bourgeoisie put this question in such a way that it had to be answered in June with grape-shot and barricades."

"Thus the workers fought in February in order to be engulfed in an industrial crisis."

 In general, this structure of a clear and inviting situation - at least in appearance - followed by a grim atmosphere is one which relates quite clearly to the sense of disillusionment or slipping away from certain portrayals. Strangely, this kind of thing is now associated more with the Soviet Union, although of course usually it is the preserve of Marxism and conspiracy theories. An aesthetic which so favours conspiracy theorists is one which is generally safe from such extensive foreign intrusion, although the Cold War was a site of many 'conspiratorial' actions and groupings (the name itself is conspiratorial - claiming a war when each nation itself stringently avoids declaring a state of war) and hence allows these elements a seeming alibi. However, conspiracy theories can be iffy in this regard: after presenting an appealing image of things, they then wish to demonstrate that things are not appealing - but this would seem if anything to encourage an overly optimistic view of things and the sense that only minor obstacles must be dealt with or shoved out of the way. Generally, this is unrealistic even by the conspiracists' terms: they portray a situation where a whole realm exists often out of most people's explicit control, and which is rather sinister. The perspective where conspiracy theorists merely become part of the glorification of the social system is that of the person with comfortable personal position in this system, who expects much from it or aspires to receive this and hence can only admit conspiracies to appear on the sides. Apart from this, conspiracy theories can at the least involve notable observations on a society which is highly 'alienated' in Marx's terms and where events might appear to inhabit a realm apart from the disenfranchised citizens of the nation. They hence deal with elements which call this social system into question. In any case, their format allows for Marx to seem highly appropriate to certain situations, in terms of political conflict - at least if these are present.

The danger otherwise is that people might dismiss it as garish and overly dark, or in general not see the appeal in such texts.

Nonetheless, this type of method tends to be prominent, in various forms, as Marx continues on. The general tone of this is quite apt:

"For the entire duration of its rule, for as long as it gave its grand performance of state on the proscenium, an unbroken sacrificial feast was being staged in the background – the continual sentencing by courts–martial of the captured June insurgents or their deportation without trial. The Constituent Assembly had the tact to admit that in the June insurgents it was not judging criminals but wiping out enemies."

While most Christianity speaks of  walking away from 'the world,' before sanctifying and chanting hymns to everything in it, Marxism at least on some level attempts to enact this. It moves from the official 'performance' to a tone quite different, and often dark in subject-matter. The texts with Engels can often be of interest because this tendency interacts with some others, with various results; however, generally Marx's texts written without such interference are not as well recognised. This might be in part due to the style bringing up things people would rather not be reminded of.

In any case, such distortions do have occasional note in popular culture. Even in video games, the sudden shift of a 'heroic' journey to a dark place with blood-thirsty characters in Lavender Town has been associated in pop culture with not only horror but also suicides. There is something that people find unnerving about it, allowing for rather exotic or troubling stories to be easily associated with it. Likewise, Dracula has an influential shift from the tone of the early novel, giving notes on the location almost reminiscent of travel-writing, to the sudden influx of a darker atmosphere which seemingly appears in the form of an animal. The whole of the area is tainted with this kind of darkness, as though it had distorted into something new. The animals are strange, and so are the people - indeed, the image of an eccentric or highly peculiar person is called upon for Dracula's associate, albeit with the absurdity occasionally played up to the point where it might seem inadvertently humorous rather than fitting with the pathos of the story. This is less thorough in that novel, however, where a neat ending must be drawn regardless - the distortion is a phenomenon that enters into the style, but not an abiding characteristic. However, Marx's use of it can not only easily lead to associations such as that which Wurmbrand drew to the Satanic, but can at times lead to notable insights in the area. In this sense, Marxism cannot stay fixated upon the idea of rousing or positive emotions, but must deal with the darker aspects of what is before it. Hence, it has an interest which can easily continue to torment and disturb anew.

Crisis

Crisis is ultimately an important part of any Marxist take on capital's tendency to down-fall. Crisis is in general terms when the contradictions of capital are clearly displayed. The artificial, inverted processes of the economy - with its organisation of the production process - run counter to the actual social process which it super-imposes itself on and attempts to hijack. These contradictions are also central to Marxist accounts of capital's down-fall, on the one hand due to elementary considerations (capitalism does not evolve into communism by a harmonious movement, as if communism were just a form of capitalism), and on the other hand based on the Hegelian dictum that transience is also a property of the object itself. Other views, however, which do not take into account this transience, tend to attribute crisis to merely particular factors. There is hence a certain gulf between these views of crises. Nonetheless, crisis is important to Marxism not only in helping to preserve a sense of its uniqueness and difference from other viewpoints, but also in terms of its close, inherent relation to the mechanism of capitalism's self-undermining.

Firstly, crisis is the manifestation of the contradictions of capital in such a way as to prevent it from going on. Secondly, crisis cannot be an impediment to this down-fall, as any notable resistance to capital which causes obstruction will lead into crisis. This especially if it could form a problem for profits.

Finally, any voluntaristic rendering of capital's problems falls under several problems. For one thing, all laws of capital militate and have always militated against it: the working class and others have a distinct disadvantage to the capitalist class in the field of negotiation, and are further harmed by the limitations associated with the falling rate of profit and the weakening of their negotiating position by the change in the organic composition of capital. Labour's position, and such, weakens as time goes on due to its expulsion from capital. For another, it attempts to portray communism as a result not of capital's contradictions but rather as a positive growth from it, and hence merely an out-growth of capitalism's own dynamic. Communism ends up positively identified with capitalism. With this 'communism,' Obama's proposals might well qualify as dogmatic and left-communist.

However, crisis theory has a different portrayal of events. Communism is identified with the abolition of capitalism via the contradictions of capital which manifest capital's problems. These reveal capital to be a distortion of the process of production and social organisation, and not its inherent form. Of course, despite this capital is nonetheless the basis of the social production process' organisation, and hence when it experiences difficulties most of society is caught up in this. They have generally relied on capital, but now they might find themselves cast out and hence unable to rely on capital. This creates a general strata who are somewhat distanced from capital, and hence the overall society. While capital might not wish to incorporate them explicitly, it still has to attempt to establish uniformity by as it were scolding or disciplining them into the fold. As with 'austerity,' their political action now takes on a 'moral' garb. Students and so on can easily also form a part of this strata, but it has to be noted that the point of their courses and so on is their integration into capitalist society and the attempt to form a harmonious part of it - hence, in concrete terms students still generally tend to have their directions and aims mapped out by capital and hence in practical terms act by active derivation from capital. Only students who are somewhat distanced from these studies and capitalist directions will earn a real association with the system's displaced strata. The rest will merely go forth and attempt to evangelise the merits of this system to all and sundry. In any case, crisis is a time when people are brought to consider the overall configuration of society, and not merely specific and particularised forms this displays them. It also expresses a decisive limitation in all attempts to merely transform capitalist society generally to a 'more favourable' form contrary to its nature - hence, these attempts may lose some steam from their hollowness being revealed by crisis, as their distinction from revolutionary politics is their taking capital being society's form for granted or taking it as an inherent form and this precisely is undermined by the advent of the crisis.

Hence, communism is not identified with capital positively, but rather relates to it negatively - it is a negation of capital which is also posited in the form of capitalism's inherent contradictions undermining its own functioning. It is hence both immanent, and a negation.


Nonetheless, crisis theory often wants to posit in the form of a 'law' what is not a law. For instance, positing that crisis will inevitably lead to an uprising faces several problems - people's forbearance is after all not an exact economic quantity. The precise circumstances which might lead to this are not something which can be specified in an exact form. Judging by the early Christians, and even the martyrs of the modern age (Islamists are associated with suicide bombings, Western Christians with getting in the way), things could go quite a long way with no revolution arising out of necessity. Crises are, after all, destructive - if people accept this destruction, then they will merely lead to destruction and not to 'communism.' The limits of this destruction might be unclear - if a person will give up their life and possibly those of others nearby in martyrdom, what will they not sacrifice to circumstances? In any case, this might lead only to a 'general dissolution' and not to communism. All of this depends on the spirit of the age, and indeed as Marxists tend to note earlier ages could not be stirred to communist revolution no matter how fervent their struggle.

Can we then posit an 'inevitable' revolution on this basis, in any practical sense? Partially, but this is categorical and not readily apparent. If capitalism's sublation is already displayed in crisis - its contradictions leading to its demise - then a social transformation is already posited. The forces which comprehend this are also the forces which lead beyond capitalism. Crises are a symptom of a disease, and the maleficent bacteria is 'communism.' Still, in terms of the direct effects of crisis, there are limitations at pausing there and assuming that as if by formula it will lead to the over-throw of capital. There is no such law to the human. One may only set one's hope on possibilities, although this approach can still reveal by one means or another a point close to necessity.

Capital attempts to assert a harmonic society on the basis of private property or isolated, separate demesnes. In this process, the gaps increasingly undermine capital's bloated castle of glass.

As a result, crisis theory goes in the right direction, but it does not go far enough in the direction it generally wants to. While it deals with the economy, it takes for granted some spirit or other in whatever quantity of people. It does not truly determine as a law that as things proceed communism must exist, as opposed to other alternative responses. In lieu of people, it substitutes abstractions behaving by 'laws' that need not apply to people. As such, we merely find that communism is a possibility that might occur given the appropriate response to circumstances, or the appropriate formation of a resistant approach to social relations - and even then requires further buttressing against other threats. Communism hence need not appear as immanent to capitalist society here. In feudal society, the promulgation of exchange-relations and compensation was indeed a harmful force tending to dissolution; communists merely took this form and hypostatised it upon capitalism, which would be erroneously to attribute to capitalism the same frailties as actually were its raison d'être. In general, however, the crisis-centric view, if developed, might at least seem to evidence some form of 'faith' in the cause in a concrete sense, if not a concrete view of the factors leading to its necessity. It implies a view of communism which is substantively posited as a system beyond capital and resulting from its collapse and over-throw, rather than one which is merely an extension of capitalist production. Hence, the view of communism is substantiated to some extent by the identification of it with the phenomenon of the crisis, it already takes on a concrete significance vis-à-vis the current system.

In general, then, crisis theory is an important moment in the portrayal of communism, but does not by its effects substantiate communism's necessity and validity as the next form of society. This may be exceeded by a categorical view of the significance of the crisis and its place in relation to capitalist society, which points to a further understanding of the place of communism. Nonetheless, much of humanity is commonly held to live in suffering and need, and nonetheless this has often led to similar placidity and social apathy rather than otherwise. What seems aimed for is a status between such impoverishment and dependence on the one hand, and on the other hand without much personal achievement of place within capitalism so far as it lasted. This will rarely occur, however, except in the form of people who rather than being a part of capitalism's general process do not adjust to the system or wish to do so, and hence are cast out - communists, in brief. Outside of this, realistically there are usually many hypotheticals still in play. Nonetheless, at the least a calmer view of the overall historical scene and the place of communism keeps communism a clear focus and gives a hint of its inevitability.

A Poetic take on Modern Marxism

Flower Power + Electricity = ?

The path the breeze follows
across the early-morning fields
completes a circuit,
and the shocking indigo daisies
lie just above the careful daffodils,
like a robe in different phases.
The way the all-encompassing
red sunlight scars them is a sign,
like a star above them,
and the red birds come out to sing.
They sing a while, and then move on.
The black shape of circling eagles
turns on in the sky, open eyes
staring down for blood.
They circle on like stonehenge,
as the field is blown this way and that.
After all prayers and propitiations,
what remains of earth and sky is a sacrifice.

General and Particular

Marxism is often treated as a short-hand for politics perceived as serving some mass of society. However, views like nationalism of various kinds have often served these people, if we are to treat them as creatures with political and social wants, but Marxism is not held to take this into account. Marx is hence inevitably seen as the product of an intellectual not a part of these masses. Otherwise it would appear clearly that this popularised Marxism is an inchoate sham.

The Soviet Union is treated as like a 'test' of Marxism, but few other views have historically been subject to this schoolyard treatment via 'tests' and so on. People did not view Cromwell as a test for a society without a hereditary monarchy - indeed, this has caught on since. Marxism, on the other hand, has regressed notably due to the Soviet fall - Marxist organisations had shifted into practical organs of the Soviet state, and hence lost their connection to their theoretical groundings, which make Marxism what it is. Hence, they were left flailing for these afterwards, which led to a general dissolution. But this would seem a simple task requiring just to shift to a new focus, as approaches like Marxist humanism and explorations of the early Marx at least tried to realise. Marxism in general was unwilling to accept this, and so remained a cataclysm of vague phrases without theoretical direction. This treatment of the Soviet Union raises many issues, including how murderous Karl Marx is to be counted. There are other problems. How much of the blame is absolved Stalin and placed on 'Marxism'? In any case, the Soviet Union is treated as the particular case, and Marxism as the generality somehow underlying it and having an undefined effect on it. Marxism is hence reduced to an aesthetic behind the Soviet Union. This has partial validity - not only is Marxism usually just an aesthetic for Marxists, but the Soviet Union did generally treat Marxism as an aesthetic or drew on it extensively for this. In this, it usually found little resistance, and most Marxists were quite alright with giving in to it, apart from those condemned as 'dogmatic,' etc.

The few that remained elsewhere usually became highly reformist, to the point where even Cuba would be too much for them. A particular strength of the Soviets was militancy - they tried to set up and favour militant organisations like the Vietnamese, while Marxism itself usually had little focus on the militant form of organisation because they wanted organisations organised upon different lines. The militant is directly political in nature. As such, the flag of militant, resistant organisation was passed on instead to Islam.

The interaction of Soviet Union and Marxism can be treated as the failure of a movement usually considered 'Marxist.' So then one might consider it a revealing of certain aspects of Marxism. Of course, Marxism is not necessarily to be decided on with reference to the Soviet Union or such mere attempts at practical enaction, but by the validity of its theories and justifications. Only these can ultimately validate Marxism as opposed to other things, or in brief influence a rational creature (as humans are hoped to be) to adhere to an actual Marxism. If humans are often not of this kind, then it would seem to preclude Marxism's goal of participation in a human, rational society.  In any case, Marxism is also known for a fervent and oppositional belief, which one wit had the alacrity to compare to Satanism, but this is usually just reduced to a pious hope. In that sense, that Marxism then has more abrasive aspects must come across as a shock and seem to reveal 'aggressive' aspects seemingly in spite of themselves. This is a quandary of their own making. When it is drawn on clearly, as with The Hunger Games, it is probably an attempt to attack Marxist tendencies. This is treacherous.

When people oppose Marxism in this way, hence, they are thus drawn to speak of 'earth-shattering' revelations (not, of course, of the surprise that might come to a person who heard of Christianity from a typical modern 'Christian' and then turned to the book of Revelation which is a part of their apparent canon), or of deep pessimism. This shift of Marxism from pious, hardly obstructive ideal to something aggressive seems to portend all kinds of 'great' intellectual themes. Hence, if a person is a Marxist, their opponents are assumed to have an intellectual head-start of about a billion to infinity - they can just ask some 'concerning' question in the same room, and they are proclaimed highly intellectual. Marx themselves suffered similarly at the hands of economists, and hence economic Marxism was reduced to an apparent dead letter, with non-Soviet Marxists rarely being interested in it. People could merely heckle a Marxist, and they would seem intellectual. In general, then, this is a trap constrained to Marxism that can nonetheless perturb modern Marxists.

Views like Christianity and Marxism have a hard time returning, somewhat humorously, if they become obscure. They have too many 'unwelcome surprises' - if people can be made to accept Christianity as at least slightly benign, then there is too much of a threat that they can find something highly problematic about it and look elsewhere. And after all, what about the Church (with its Crusades and persecution, at that), Hell, Judgement, etc.? And the long-delayed kingdom of Heaven? Christianity hence cannot afford once it has shown itself to be once again a pariah, for it faces too much resistance. It can only survive by, as happened to Marxism in part in the Soviet Union, having its statements and symbols turned into ciphers for aspects of populace's lives or social structure, becoming in the process no more than idle symbols without their religious or political content. The kingdom of Heaven and related imagery? Well, it just relates, to many, to a promise of stability and social success for them, to the 'American Dream.' People accept Christians' misdemeanours, because they don't know if they're good Christians, but are quite willing for instance at funerals to proclaim them extraordinary Christians. People call Marxists idealistic dreamers, then they marry and do so twice as much. There is a certain sense of cognitive dissonance to all this. It isn't that they hold these two beliefs, it is that they do not or do not want to work on the level of beliefs. This presents a problem for these views considered authentically, because it is a tendency which separates things from them, but not for the vulgarised versions which capitalist society especially fostered, who would do all within their power to safeguard this vulgarisation. One could not combat this and escape their rebuke, clear in Christianity but often denied in Marxism.

A text cannot escape rebuke by being brief, where there is disagreement over the content. Where people do not take issue with the content, they will enjoy reading more things which favour this. If something is controversial and brief, it is usually going to have to be longer, or it will meet with immediate rebuke which it leaves things open for. If brevity is the question, what is going to get cut is the rejoinders - which is precisely what these people want, after Marxism has been proclaimed a dead letter. If their concern is not with the theory of Marxism, but their own enjoyment or such stimuli, then by identifying with this attack on a 'refuted' dead letter and getting texts which are just offering this treatment they can at least gain immediate and notable praise. Marxism is a notable source of it, as we have said - hence, it's always likely that many lurk around and participate there for this 'rush,' so to speak, with little concern for the theory and such. 'Marxist.' Marxist communities are hence quite reactionary, in a substantive sense.

In general, then, Christianity already has a difficult time surviving Christians, but survives by being something non-Christian, as Kierkegaard and others have observed. The Soviet Union was hence not a society subscribing to the tenets of Marxism. Nonetheless, it did attempt to place these Marxist tropes into the role of symbols, realising its images of usurpation, opposition to a social demographic and so on. It was hence a state which was itself plunged into opposition. In addition, it was a dictatorship, which nonetheless attempted to draw on a given system, which while this was limited still means that it could only subsist if based with personal rather than generic interaction with these tropes and images. Hence, the Soviet Union is not only an absorption of Marxism into symbols of the existent social system, but also its interaction with personal life if on a restricted scale. This means that it was in some ways an identification of Marxism with the nation or nationalism, and hence the formation of Marxism into a political agenda which integrated concrete realisation in the form of the nation and hence was directly political a demand, ideal or whatever. This is important - the Soviet state could not merely idly disseminate Marxist views which attacked them, but had to identify with these in some ways. As the Fates Warning song goes, 'I take a part of you, you take a part of me. [...] Searching for another chance to make us all one.'

In any case, people tend to take the Soviet Union as actually the general case, Marxism the particular to be gleaned from it. Marxism is hence subsumed totally by the Soviet Union, and by its leaders and populace. But this is clearly illusory if it is noted that Marx was minimally obscure - that this mass blaming or at times disregard of Marx based on this association with Soviet mass murder is hence without clear foundation. In any case, however, Soviet society was a situation where Marxism did subsist, in the form of its necessary interaction with the state. Marxism obviously lead to a dictatorship, because it disregards the political interests and hopes of people. It does not qualify these as real, and hence view them as 'zoon politikon,' as interested in the nature of the society around them being what they want it to be. It is in this sense a result of the atomized political views on the nineteenth century. It also lead to a frustrated dictatorship - of course, as this dictatorship was at the same time beholden to its themes of aggression and if you like the 'domestic violence' of state and Party. But did Marxism necessarily recommend its use in this manner? Was its use necessarily partial, disregarding by necessity in this context a large part of what Marx wrote about and tried to put forwards? In this sense, Marxism could hardly be given fitting application as the policy of a state based around the general division of labour, and specialization - an important part of the direction of 20th Century chess, for instance, although the Soviets did at least try to intervene in this politically and subordinate it to general issues. In this sense, the whole project of a 'Marxist' nation as there formulated was a problem, and its Marxism by necessity partial. This partial Marxism was nonetheless quite persistent, as it was found highly useful for those who wished to convert Marxism into a distinct career form in capitalist society, often dispensing with the Soviets after their fall to avoid the association with a fallen nation.

Marxism was hence an ideology proper to the early 1900s theme of a 'paranoid' dictatorship, which was an inevitable result of the human soon politikon increasingly encountering a society which moved almost at random and by laws created by humans but moving despite them. They hence represented an attempt to cohere society and keep it in human control, something both the Soviets and Nazis were explicit about. Hence, for instance, Hitler's sense of betrayal later on was major, and probably valid because the anti-capitalist trends of his Party and its anti-Semitism were things that could hardly go without notable resistance in a capitalist society. Such intrigues were essentially inevitable in higher places, it was just a question of where. Likewise, their army's motivation may have been lacking as they went on. Stalin was also known for their 'paranoia,' as a dictator, and indeed was harsh in his treatment of his Party members and people allegedly serving him. During this phase of things, Marxism hence had a direct relevance, but since then its relevance is quite different.

The Soviet Union is often portrayed as, to borrow a Kierkegaardian turn of phrase, 'extraordinarily Marxist.' This is in part because people are eager to see the Soviet state in contrast with another, 'better' one - hence, if it is Marxist, it is seen as 'really Marxist.' This was always likely to be the USA, because it is 'constitutional' and integrates intellectual labour into its state, it hence encapsulates the 'intellectual' pretenses of anti-Marxism, which would hence have Marxism be held of no intellectual account for its own part. Consider America as like a room, where capitalistic people reside, and Marxism as something 'outside' that. This is the only way that the Cold War can be portrayed as an 'ideological conflict,' without forcing random people to come to a judgement between these two elaborate views (Marxism, for instance) and what they have in common, differ on, how much of Marxist writing is valid, etc. Posing it as such, as is commonly done to promote the USA's cause, is not meant as putting everyone on the spot and saying that they can choose between these. This is not possible if it is honestly framed in these terms. Hence, what is actually meant is the physical separation of a place where normal people are, the USA, and a threat outside this - the Soviet Union. What are people doing in the USA? Free, 'nightclub' stuff, obviously, which is the popular image of that state as opposed to Soviet restriction - drinking alcohol, eating trash, having sex, occasionally while President (well it's the Land of the Free and they are there to keep asserting this, why wouldn't they then treat it as such?), taking drugs. That kind of thing. Hence, wherever such a situation exists, this opposition to the Soviets can be posed. This is a certain 'versatility' of capitalism. Because this opposition becomes a part of daily life, it is not easily overturned.

There is a certain dishonesty in posing politics in this way, but it is an attempt to make politics reducible to the sensuous, atomised experience of capitalist society. Politics there can only appear in the form of isolated impressions, and going beyond this tends towards socialism. Over-arching views like Nazism are only received as 'aesthetics,' although they at least are honest about this, but people do not wish to go further at the risk of 'alienating' the people around them. A Marxist cannot speak of 'alienation' from a personal stand-point, but only a theoretical one - otherwise, of course they would feel or be alienated, they are Marxists and wish to attack capitalist society. They're weird. In any case, the treatment of Soviet 'Marxism' is duplicitous, and stubborn in its duplicity - even if it is valid to note that uses of words like 'communist' here are misleading, people aren't talking about that, they're talking about keeping things out of a room. Dealing with this only as if it was a political discussion is fruitless if it is expected to go further, they would rather it was something like a counselling session. This can be unpleasant, as this is a highly isolated experience, and Marxism being subjected to it means that it inevitably seems obscure, and its aim at present far-off. Marxism, of course, exists as a political system continually after its formation, if an obscure one. It does not suddenly cease to be communist, etc., at a given time, and hence it can be freely interacted with.

Marxism continually undercuts its immediate appeal, as for instance with its criticism of the Proudhonist treatment of value, and hence blaming it for such eclectic uprisings can be problematic. It almost inevitably is replaced with Proudhonism, as Bordiga once noted.

The Soviet Union is restrictive. It tends to say 'no' to things, in popular terms, such as free enterprise, free choice of social systems, and other freedoms. Of course, communism must always be secured by some force, or we would merely create social multiplicity which allows for capitalism, and hence is not truly anti-capitalist. One can't rely on a constitution to do this, because they are famous objects of disregard. Hence, socialism without this reduces to a utopianism too mild to deserve the socialist name. Nonetheless, we must recall that capitalist society is one of need and fulfillment, where people are to continually seek and receive such things. To deny people this is anathema. Hence, capital's international watchword becomes the liberty which Paul famously condemned.

If Marxism is thus general, and the Soviet Union particular, why would Marxism be chained to the Soviet Union? There is plenty more to Marxism. But if we treat it in this way, then we prevent Marxism from being pinned down here, and hence many will disapprove of this. It is tantamount to supporting Marxism, if while giving this limited expression. In general, this view of Marxism reduces it to a threat to society and something which is a general hindrance. Marxist adherence to certain positions and opposition obstructs the harmonic society. Of course, Marxists are not considering Marxism for the sake of their own position in capitalist society or so on. Besides, they want to get rid of it. As such, it is generally safe to present Marxism as general, if this is honest, and then it tends to display favourably compared to the others in general. However, when this is not it is merely an image or aesthetic, that the Soviet Union can do as well as anything.

De Leonism and What's Left

For Daniel De Leon, socialists were the most advanced part of the society considered as a stratum. They could come into conflict with other workers, as De Leon did both in academia (ideological labour is still labour), and in the various unions of the time. Conflicts between unions were common at the time, and many defected from major unions due to dissatisfaction with among other things their rejection of politics and political discussion. It stood to reason that these highly reactionary elements of unions would see opposition. Unlike has often been alleged, Daniel De Leon identified with the more radical trend in popular politics, they did not only attack the unions in the abstract. Unions, obviously, are official and at least pseudo-political organisations, as the Labour Party was, and hence were subject to rebuke. This was especially likely because they are organs of negotiation. No doubt some would support Tony Blair for being head of the 'Labour Party' and having British labour's support.

They tried to take unions seriously as organs of political action. Hence, so far as they are concerned, IOC unions were to be a united force for a united struggle, they would also have to unite. This seems straightforward, if unions are to be of worth in such a context. However, the problem is that the division of labour which applies generally and which  the workers adhere to,  is set by the capitalists and must still apply in practice to workers' organisations. Hence, the unity of these unions is merely abstract, while in practical terms the capitalists are allowed to determine the nature of the union. Hence, even these, as in the IWW, took a reactionary and harmful turn, and rejected De Leon then only to accept Noam Chomsky now. The IWW right now is less a union than a divorce. The SLP are still humbly proclaiming themselves a Party, and as the song says, 'Best-laid plans sometimes are just a one night stand.'

This issue, of course, applies just as much to other unions, but in an inverted manner. Their division and hence form is dictated by capitalists, in a more direct sense, and they are cursed to wander like Ahasuerus where the capitalist leads. They are hence in many ways at the mercy of this class. The merit of the industrial union is that its if abstract union at least posits a socialist element, or the socialist hope, while the others do not do so in their organisation. The problem with this is that they tend to assume some form of 'socialism,' in whatever sense, is already in application, because they want this element to be applied without hindrance. It can only do this if labour is already carried out on this principle on a social level. This is not yet the case. But nonetheless it is the most fervent attempt to give unions or organisations of struggle a form making it of use to the socialist movement.

Daniel De Leon did oppose many socialists, but mostly for their retreats from socialism, not for socialism itself. If they saw problems arising, it was not from socialism itself. Hence, a firm adherence to this was not to be attacked. Only after one adheres to something can one go on to the other details. It would be strange, of course, to reprove people for being socialists and hence as De Leon said seeing the struggle through to its end, hence realising the terms and direction. They were hardly in a position to treat 'socialists' as the problem. Few people are attacked this much for their advancement in a given field, apart from priests. Many leftists would prefer a zone freed from 'meddling' leftists, or in brief one encouraged to be reactionary. If they were honest, they too would take as their slogan, 'No politics in the union,' and for their flag Gompersism.

De Leon, of course, wrote many works, and few have read over them. That would require patience, as the central points are often diffuse. It is not a topic of study. Hence, it need be no surprise that most of what we are told about De Leon's history is merely fabricated or sentimental, as with Irving Stone's stories about the oppression of Eugene Debs by the cruel De Leon. If De Leon were a more contemporary figure, their biographies would accuse them of cyber-bullying Jill Stein, no doubt. They are hence a historical object of wanton vilification - if they have to be mentioned at all. This might seem harsh. They died at around the time of the World Wars, of course, and the German side after World War I was highly demonised as a particular nation for their actions, to the point of seeking reprisal. In that sense, they might have just chosen the right time for it. In any case, they arose before the subsumption of the international communist movement by Soviet Russia, and hence their stern independence might seem a fitting reaction to the times.

De Leonite politics has often led to conflict, and responds to conflicts between various facets of society. It attempts to unify in a partisan manner against the forces opposed to it. However, the field of unionism was, peculiarly, not found a fitting location for this. De Leonism hence holds to underlying modes of social, partisan unity, against other elements. It thus can seem abrasive and strict. Nonetheless, apart from the particular forms advocated, De Leonism has the fortitude to stay outside these, by drawing on its firm adherence to socialism as such. Hence, its views summarised in terms of general traits have a long-lasting validity.

On Genre: Details

Genre is a matter of taking sounds and fitting them into a certain pattern. They don't admit people who stay outside of this.
People who don't might just fit into 'progressive' or 'country' niches.
Hence, genres subordinate sounds to a certain pattern or sound.
A work which remains in one genre is by nature partial, as it excludes other sounds and their meaning.
Some genres may be excluded as illegitimate, but few posit only one legitimate genre. Genres are types, not inherently views.
Genres hence presuppose sounds to be subordinated or arranged. These must exist outside of the genre.
These are independent pieces of music, not actually raw materials. They must be their own sounds, which can then be used, if their aim were to be genre music then they could not attain this because their whole point is to form music without this formation into patterns. If their direction were these patterns, they could not be formed.
This non-genre music should generally be looked at as the basis for the formation of every genre.
Genre is generally an early question when music is to be made. If it is made without genre, then it is in a progressive or obscure country niche. Hence, this is not how most music is made.
The two general, and opposed, directions of music, are: progressive music, or music which is sounds without a clear harness, and pop music, which merely subjugates sounds to the will of others or divests it of its internal existence, which is music made without concern for the musical content. Between these lies genre music, which modifies sounds instead by patterns, along with whatever else. Progressive music, however, can still have pop tendencies, especially if it is to be used for such: these, however, are not merely musical, but social resonances or a question of the musician's relation to social institutions like pop music filtering into the music. The pop music elements must enter in pseudo-organically, or through the musician's experience of that genre.
Politics has several different 'genres,' or aesthetics. Liberalism is not a political theory, generally, but an aesthetic. Of course, even being based on theoretical works need not make something a political theory, as this requires that the political view be thoroughly integrated into this, but it is at least an attempt.
From where does politics derive? Ultimately, from people's interaction with the society they are in, at whatever level and in whatever institutional context is offered. This forms so to speak the raw material of politics. Political 'genres' merely subjugate this to a certain 'sound,' as it were.
It is only political because they are in some way distanced from this society. This also includes its political forces. Hence, political 'genres' are all in a sense hollow. There are no tribes, there are only different people.
Politics in a sense creates an isolated realm, however, where this division does not exist in usual conduct. Politics implies an overall perspective on this society, and not just being a part of it of whichever kind, and hence requires this isolation. However, elsewhere these people do not have an automatic immunity from interaction with people who are not 'political' as such, and hence could face a more hostile atmosphere.
As all political genres are in a sense united, and also in a sense detached from the political, the suggestion arises of a way of evading these. They are all possibly hostile - if devoid of course of their general dynamic which means that they have some elements which relate positively to the political - to all political actors.
When the political is directly welded to the politics of genre, to form a new political current alongside the others, it will generally be inconsistent. Nonetheless, it will generally appear as some sort of 'third way,' but is really just a form of politics identified with a person, which they allow to be diluted into the politics of some current and Party.
Political currents diverge due to demands from the world from their 'founders.' This applies in essence and in specific points. Those which are named after a person should therefore not be assumed to have any correspondence to them.
However, this eventually congeals into systematic, promulgated divergence, or continual disagreement with these people. In general, then, as indifference to their own claimed political beliefs, which indifference is made programmatic. People interacting with this political belief therefore need some sort of excuse as to why these people are so indifferent to their own views. As providing these excuses would involve more honest political polemic against the current than its own people are usually able to provide, the task of furnishing these excuses is given to people of some other current, who then are listed as their official 'nemeses.'
Hence, opponents of Marxism contain those who oppose it on principle, and another current which merely claim some distance from it - those who claim disenfranchisement after the fall of Russia, for instance, or which merely claim that some aspect of it will be difficult. These are often inconsistent - they take Marxism and a Marxist perspective for granted in some way, and then seek to oppose it, as they are ultimately merely external elements forced into detailed engagement with it of some, albeit highly qualified form, and hence closer to it than most Marxists, and trying to weasel their way out of this to discourse with Marxists. Hence, what they tend to come out with from there is highly simplified, because it is merely an attempt at an excuse for others.
The presentation of Das Kapital is in a sense inherently likely to be knocked down - it has the generosity to look at their system and present it as a general existent, and yet they are left free to just clean a couple of stains and then seem free of Marxism. Hence, the modus operandi of just taking slight issue with small things in the hopes of taking down the whole Marxist system has a sanction within Marxism.
In a way, Marxists will join in on this when they need to dilute Marxism by swathing it in their uncertainty so that they can use it for whatever they are doing, but this is derived from currents who stand apart from it and can as such do this unremittingly. They hence rely on these currents to allow them to twist Marxism to suit their own ends - and when texts are clearly presented, diverging from them casually and without reference to it would usually be difficult - and hence these currents are in a sense merely performing the double service of a) providing excuses for divergence, b) providing means for further divergence. This is important in grasping why often irrelevant currents come to take on a seeming importance in these political circles which is more than their fairly meagre divergences would seem to suggest.
If these currents interact in detail with Marxism, their popularity is unlikely to be major - the general operation of the system can't allow for continually considering such problems it might perhaps have. However, this implies that while they will take issue with such small aspects of Marxism, their affinity with Marx on more notable issues of sociology and so on was more notable than that of most Marxists. This is required for the sustained engagement with Marxism. Hence, they are notably inconsistent, mostly, and often need to twist definitions of Marxism in order to have this function at all - as such, they can usually be disputed with on this basis first and foremost. Nonetheless, if amongst this noise made about something quite different their objections seem relevant to Marxism, despite being objections to something else, in all likelihood Marxism guided them there itself.
Hence, someone who took objections with Marxism from saying for instance that Das Kapital didn't list every commodity existing at the time, from which it made derivations, or that Kapitalizmus didn't actually involve capitalist mice, would generally remain quite immune to it or would be unlikely to be convinced by it. These examples are somewhat facetious, nonetheless they are accurate. The problem with these is that they cannot safely assimilate Marxist imagery and dialogue, and hence are so to speak cut off from many things expected of people. Most politicians or citizens generally tended to assimilate Marxist imagery of unity, etc., easily, and hence could all easily pretend that there was no threat from this external force. Still, this method was generally appropriate to dissuade Marxism, .
However, the problem is that Marxist critiques of capital are also generally partial in this manner. For instance, it takes up Proudhonist critiques, but jettisons the adherence to the law of value as the strict principle of criticism, and likewise takes up some criticism of conditions of capitalism or with its formation which does not draw on its fundamental traits or contrast this with those it wished to establish. It often merely alludes to a problem, or throws out imagery suggesting a problem, but does not go beyond this. In this sense, Marxism is ultimately identical to this opposing force, and raises the same issues, often quite explicitly. They are hence found in identity, as with the Soviet Union, Britain and the USA, standing only against this stream of disparaged and disliked imagery. The Soviet Union was, however, forced into fairly strict opposition to these, which in a way Marxism did not prepare for - it was still quite passive and not that strict or oppositional. Hence, the Soviet Union had to draw on a different force.
The Soviet Union knew that it would have to engage in serious opposition in some form early on in order to form any kind of state, but Marxists were often sensitive to this especially because it was so important to their critique of capitalism that it did this - hence it found itself abandoned from the off by Marxism as such, and had to look elsewhere. Many Marxists had been urged to just look at this section, the one that would condemn any new 'Marxist' state or nation, etc. Nonetheless, it still had a nominal adherence to Marxism, which didn't differentiate it from Marxism generally.
While politics proper is substance, genre is in essence form. Genres of politics, like liberalism, are so to speak only so many experiences for those who interact with them, or a template for viewer interaction with them. Hence, they can as it were be generated automatically when viewers interact with them. You might hence wish to avoid them. Otherwise, they can spin out in defiance of the political and the viewer, as an independent community that will soon turn against them.
Liberalism is capital's attempt to appeal to people's emotions, while conservatism knowingly presents a harsher face although it can also pander to them. Hence, more 'major' conservative politicians historically have, in recent times, generally existed in either a Cold War scenario, where they can be contrasted with the Soviet Union to the point where liberalism and conservatism were essentially identical, or through appealing to liberal but apolitical aesthetics like 'feminism,' as occurred in part in Britain. Others have only emerged in more recent times, and are known for expressing in part the disdain of the organic political realm for liberalism. These elements have hence faced much opposition in the Republican Party, and eventually been derided and knocked aside in the form of Ted Cruz, etc. Britain was a thoroughly liberal state which had little political life, compared to the USA. They were hence leaning on the USA. The more liberalism allows for money to signify various additional activities which can be carried out freely, the more capital has an incentive to invest in money as such rather than consumption of particular things - however, the more that capital consumes, the more it tends back towards liberalism. Money, though it might not mind hemming in conservatives, ultimately does not wish to continue going up to them - with all of its possibilities open - and saying, 'hit me.'
The Soviet Union gained a modicum of stability as a force of opposition by not going in a liberal direction primarily. This is important, as otherwise it would have easily collapsed into this comfortable liberalism and fallen into a regular capitalist state. Instead it remained somewhat disciplined and distant from these, rather than just allowing for them and falling into line immediately.
Religion deals, instead of with a specific group of people, with a generic mass of them. It is hence often more vague than politics. Nonetheless, it does attempt to look towards a certain group or type, which is exalted, and in this it can overlap with the political. When it is too distant from a political view, as in most Christianity, it tends to reduce to a merely nominal 'religion' where nobody can cast aspersions on the religion of others so long as they call themselves a 'Christian,' which ultimately renders it meaningless.
As said, genres tend to derive from organic music of some kind, which generally makes it recognisable. The opening of Paramore's 'Misery Business,' indeed a miserable track, resembles Alder-era Fates Warning if they were rather awful. Curiously, it sounds somewhat akin to 'Parallels,' which is aptly named in this sense.  Admittedly, earlier tracks like 'Silent Cries' are seemingly sidetracked by this kind of thing. Likewise, 'The Road Goes on Forever' is based on a similar theme and vocal sound to Blue's 'Breathe Easy.' However, these are all made uniform by genre, which trivialises any worth of the original sound, usually.
Genre music has a limited number of possibilities. If music weren't an established thing, you couldn't have pop music - hence, genre music has to be produced so to speak arbtrarily. However, pop music cannot generally risk basing its claims for appeal on putting itself above these other forms of music or vaunting about being different and not as abrasive, because this risks cutting out this ground beneath it. Bands that do this often will tend to rely on an image which revolves comparatively less around musical factors, as occurs with bands like Paramore or occasional transitions between acting (usually for children) and music. Seemingly people think it apt that pop music and children's films be closely associated.
Often, genres will tend to run into each other. To differentiate, they will hence need to be highly one-track, or keep to one very particular sound in order to remain even seemingly distinct. This applies to many sub-genres and smaller, similar genres. The problem is that many bands within these will vary from the other form of music only as much as one form of track, like an anthem, will vary from another form of track, like a ballad or interlude, on another band's album.
Christianity generally latches itself onto other things, like musical genres or reality TV shows, and pretends to be a different type of them. Of course, it is not so just because they enter the genre. A 'Christian' reality TV show like Duck Dynasty is just an ordinary reality TV show assimilating religious themes. There is unlikely to be any serious interaction with religious themes. It hence requires some pseudo-conservative sentiments, which are however tamed and damped-down by interacting with the show, but also Sadie Robertsons and the like to dilute the show generally. Obviously, 'Keeping Up With the Kardashians' violates many religious tenets or at least sensibilities, and hence requires some form of 'religious' reality TV show to arise at some point to excuse this active flouting of religious and most other standards. Christianity is beholden to the same standards as most other genres, who are filled with religious people whose music will hence inevitably reflect their religious views if these are notable at all. Of course, if actual Christians made music in such contexts, they would come into conflict with Christian bands and listeners generally, who would like their Christianity diluted at this point and would not appreciate attempts to disturb their pseudo-Christian harmony by asserting early Christian strictness.
Other religions, like Islam or Sikhism, are more rarely associated with this use. Islam is a political religion, and hence can look at this world 'with sober senses' and without having to set up 'genres' of each form of music to interact with it - it can also be far more critical of them, because it does not simply colonise each of them.
The category of 'musical genre' is ultimately a highly limiting one, because it does not describe the organic content of the music. Nonetheless, it is how art is categorised. Any further categorisation requires drawing on other realms, and is not found merely within art.
Political genre is in many ways reducible to art or to hollow 'banners and sounds,' but nonetheless contains some interaction with the political or is not merely restricted to the artistic. Nonetheless, it is at a distance from the political as such, and hence ultimately reduces to a foreign intrusion into politics. In this sense, while artistic genre at least expresses an aspect of art, politics cannot be treated in the same way without being cheapened. Popular politics was no more of interest than the Teen Choice Awards.
Genres like Alternative were substantial entities, like 'nu metal' in a way, nonetheless they were mostly defined with reference to the listener's experience and associations with it, rather than being musically wholly cut off from popular rock tendencies. This was nonetheless distorted to the point of being a different genre, but this was in a sense more a template for listeners than otherwise. In this, it filled a certain niche which was not specifically musical in nature, though it was aesthetic - it took the tropes of popular music, etc., and then distorted them to fit a mood more of depression, lowliness and sadness. In the process, their musical tendencies were distorted to something quite different, nonetheless despite trying to cut itself off it never went further than attempting to do so, it was not really cut off from popular music per se.
This sort of distorting niche is something which tends to arise at certain points in time, in various forms. In general, it is merely a single motion irrespective of the specifically artistic form and revolving instead around moods and social situations (or isolation), and hence this niche could usually only be filled once in terms of pop cultural or political categories. It takes the form of a genre.
This form of music, etc., exists to accommodate situations where the popular forms of music are played, but the situation and such does not at all suit this. The resulting distortions are hence set down as a genre.
There are similar political tendencies, which can take on the same characteristics as normal politics, but then play them back from a different location in a similar way. While ultimately quite similar, they nonetheless will tend to be an available niche. However, when they are active, they will obstruct the progress of alternative music, and so on. If they are active, they generally imply sources which are more radical than them, as well as situations, which hence interact with things from a position further than merely distorting them. Generally, these are less radical than Alt in terms of interaction with the world around them or the perspective implied on them, but nonetheless imply some sort of difference in this somewhere or they would not arise. In general, this niche can only be filled by one field, but that can be aesthetic, political, or otherwise.
Fields can hence at times distort into other things, and in a sense these other fields are then created to accommodate these distortions. Hence, there are many genres of things which involve a lot of display and processing rather than actual focus, because they don't have much point.
In politics, for people to be said to be charismatic or to have a 'way with words' essentially implies as the latter term explicitly acknowledges that they take words from elsewhere and put them together in an artificial and inorganic way. If they were saying something of political substance that they understood, they would not have a 'way with words,' as they would not be manipulating words from elsewhere into a pattern. This can easily be seen instead, if they attempt to put forward any real politics, as awkwardly trying to shout out things that they 'read somewhere,' taking credit for them in some underhanded way, and hence they would be both awkward and called out on it. This would not be seen as a 'way with words.' Instead, they would have to be saying little of political substance, and hence could not have a consistent and focussed opposition, rather merely taking words already accepted and spewing them out. They hence attempt to take some political genre, such as socialism or and then further subjugate it to genre, which however is not in actuality possible. These figures are accommodated by the pseudo-genre of identity politics as well as, in a limited way, liberalism, and hence tend towards these. Generally, they can be associated with some such identity political trend.
A form of politics was usually not defined primarily by its relation to identity politics, but elsewise, by political criteria. This is the only accurate way of considering matters. Identity politics is a matter of identifying with a certain demographic, as if this matters. It obscures the person and their politics. Nonetheless, often political genres could co-exist with identity politics in particular authors, who would in a sense attempt to differentiate themselves by their own aesthetic, which results from this occasional interruption of identity political elements. This hence takes the political genre they have subjugated the content to, and further distorts it into something they can claim their own. However, this is misleading, as political genre is inherently a distortion of the organic and individualised categories of organic political material, into something which obscures this, and hence at this point they have moved away from individuality rather than towards it.
If a political system or form of beliefs encompasses all of these levels of politics - having elements of the organic, elements of genre, and elements of identity politics - then it will in all likelihood involve dual authorship, but nonetheless can be taken quite far in almost any direction, and can be taken more or less in the same direction so far as substance is concerned as can any other political system which involves these three levels. This is limited, somewhat strictly in a way, by the identity politics aspect, which while it might seem accessible creates a certain barrier to any individual attempting to take this form of politics further, and ultimately is merely a restriction to be left behind and which otherwise limits how far this new direction can be taken. Certain communities sympathetic to these ideas may be more or less exclusive, at a given time period. This hence means that all of these forms - those which involve all three levels - can be taken in similar directions, but with different phrasing.
As the levels are in some ways inimical, dual authorship is necessary to these forms, in various ways.
Reality TV shows are a question of taking some form of situation that the audience is used to, and then forming it into a genre. It hence represents the category of genre quite well. Genre texts usually rest on the impact of such sections. Reality TV shows are all about imposed patterns. If they need to impose patterns over Christianity to sell it as a reality TV product, then they will do that, which is a tendency at odds with the religion. Likewise, the use of pop music alongside politics will generally overshadow it, unless the politicians are accepted as essentially conduits of this industry and what it represents, as a mode of politics whose only distinction is selling it. As conservatism is too strict for its politics to be 'sold' in the usual mode, unless they are also sacrificed in the process, this will usually tend towards liberalism.
In general, genre hence relies on musical content, but in some ways departs from it. As such, genres of it like 'pop music,' which are only distinguished as pseudo-genres by their departure being to attempt to subjugate this musical content wholly to others, will ultimately end up unstable or subjugated to these content. This, however, relies on the specific nature of the content, of whichever sort. In general, politics is an ethical pursuit, and hence you should not expect actual political content to be accessible to people, or understood, regardless of this. The point is not that the reader can claim to something just because they have claimed to read the text, but that their reading of it and what they can understand so far is important - otherwise, you have the general situation where a text is merely a means for others to steal credibility. A person's credibility is their own. In any case, certain political tendencies are highly vulnerable, and will generally meet with immediate objections, so you don't want these people to be able to claim also to have read it and be able to dismiss a whole form of politics because of it. While Platforms and such are generally immune to this because they speak on behalf of some Party rather than on behalf of a specific politics, they are not always so if they claim to any more than this. As such, political works without genre would usually exist in interaction and not merely serve people up instant gratification as if the politics were some form of drug injection, and hence would appear quite difficult to read comparatively.

'Finding Jerry'

People generally were expected to proclaim strongly their own superiority, intellectually and generally, to one Adolf Hitler, who was leader of Germany in the 1940s and wrote books and speeches of generally more political depth than most modern politicians. Notably, their Party also declared war on the British Empire and Soviet Union. They were frequently expected to read Mein Kampf and be revolted immediately by how much better they were than it, how much it was below them. This was how they treated Hitler. However, Hitler was leader of Germany and a powerful statesman - and, guess what, the next day these same people would have to return to the ordinary life which compels this reaction to Hitler as under a knife, yet where they would willingly submit and show obeisance to any authority figure or person of wealth and stature. One might ask how they continue, when this contradiction seems manifest - although in a sense it merely follows that these people of whatever type are in no position to criticise Hitler for anything, or that Hitler has a partial immunity here. In general, it would seem to follow that for these things to be clearly harmonised and allowed for, it requires general incorporation into their lives. Hence, it isn't actually sufficient that they disapprove of Hitler completely - and can brush him off cheaply - and then go into an environment where this can be applied to anyone, but rather the authority figures must be validated in some way, must be automatically set apart from and against Hitler. This would only have been the case in the British (or, technically, the French - but they got not very far) army of the 1940s war. There, it was a group of people with an administrative set-up which was automatically and directly part of the struggle against Hitler, almost by proxy, and hence which offered - at least - a partial resolution of this conflict. As such, these people had to treat their workplace as so to speak the British Army against Hitler, as the continuance of this in modern times, where each member is a soldier serving the anti-Hitler cause and any member dissenting of this cause is likely to be cast aspersion upon and thrown out - which could not be done arbitrarily or as if Hitler were not somewhere present here.

This was only a partial security for these people, however. Of course, it was still inconsistent, given the capitalistic system that the British Army were fighting for and on behalf of, or in brief given the British nation of the time, and hence the only at all consistent solution was that of Gandhi - that Britain should submit and Nazi targets commit suicide like lemmings are often portrayed as doing. To be fair, Gandhi's cause was given significant momentum by Hitler's war, and as their primary cause benefitted from this side they had to have a certain sense of indifference to the war. While Nazism was an attempt to avenge German treatment and their apparently unfair loss of the war, Russia conversely was a state formed in retreat from opposing forces and hence which took refuge in the pre-existent template of 'socialist' politics, which however ultimately collapsed under opposition as was the inevitable result - due to the 'internationalism' of Second International socialism (Engels offered some contrast and had highly nationalistic tendencies at times), the Soviet Union exercised international  influence, but because of this it was gridlocked into the format of 'peaceful co-existence' and integrated into this international system, which made it idle as a point of opposition to this. A political system which is denationalised or has no clear link to a concrete representation is one which is idle or merely an existent economic category turned into a pseudo-political system; that is, unless it is merely an expression of an individual's temperament and thus cut off from others, but then it is in a way exclusive to this individual and people's evaluation of them. The natural form of realisation of a political system or viewpoint is the nation, or its demesne, and with no realisation of this a political system is idle or does not by itself have any viewpoint. A state forged in promises of retreat from this kind of assertion on the world is always likely to turn into something like the Soviet Union, as in a sense it is a mere shelter from war rather than a politically significant entity. As a state, it must call upon some political ideology - however, because it is formed through promises of retreat, this cannot be a mode of expression of the state, and hence must be denationalised and abstract. Nonetheless, Marxism must be one of the only systems to get essentially one chance to prove itself, while in conflict of course with the rest of the world and tendencies in a nation which want to co-operate with this - which is somewhat like saying that the lack of monarchs (or effective idleness of monarchs as a governing force, which is just a variation) failed de facto with Cromwell.

Socialism has many forms, and it might seem strange that everyone instantly accepts that Marxism is the only one which counts and the earlier and similar forms can be dismissed if it has problems, and likewise that after about half a century we could draw the conclusion that it could be thrown aside rather than amended or improved in any way - in brief, that even capitalism's supporters are Bordigists. You might suggest that there were many people during that time who did not want to give it a chance, and hence it had an uphill struggle.

In general, popular recent novels for instance have either originated in Britain or drawn upon British archetypes - the Hunger Games for instance drew upon the image of active resistance to some random 'totalitarian' forces, which is ultimately a British archetype, as well as grabbing and relying upon the archetypes of British authors like George Orwell. Hence, this sense of a British context was fairly inherent to them, because it means that people who dislike them can be safely dismissed rather than given increasing ground and allowed or encouraged. If you wanted to make noise about something, noise against it had to be hidden away or attacked, or it would just be a meaningless cacophany - which in a way it is anyway. The classics are not dry for no reason, they are dry so that they would not inspire strong negative feelings or aimless enthusiasm about the work of art in their case, and hence could take some sort of message forwards and last. Marx set themselves the task of not fading away like the fragile utopians, and as time went by had to take on an increasingly detached tone to avoid this at all costs. Recent British popular novels are just fake classics.

There may have been poetry after Auschwitz, but increasingly people did not read it. This is because poetry includes several mechanisms which lead to a somewhat dry approach to things, and this was eventually ruled out in the form of Nazism. It might be said that 'Bordiga's' approach to the Nazis was found offensive not because he said anything actually offensive for most of it - his generally attributed comments about the worst effects of fascism being anti-fascism are highly offensive to people, realistically, but they can still pretend to like him somehow - but because he wished to analyse it rather than merely give way to possibly opposed sentiments. Of course, if any analysis were to be made, however flawed - and Bordiga's analysis was highly flawed, in its attempt to assimilate the Nazis to Marxist categories which were least appropriate to them -, this required avoiding this sentimental mode for a moment. Hence, Bordiga was a victim of a social agenda of sorts that applied after the Nazis - everything had to be poetry after the Nazis. Poetry as an art form is simply the locking up of a person in the form of a poem, for other people to inspect, although it can view other things as higher than poetry and not accept this schema. People could no longer write things and expect instant reactions - it had to be vetted before anyone could react to it, and if people disagreed they would jettison it in shock. This didn't stop the Marxists, who if they read Marx generally only thought it of note to note down that they disagreed. But it could be said that, after Marx and Engels, the Marxist movement was pure poetry.

Admittedly, Mitchell Abidor's introduction to 'Auschwitz, the great Alibi' was somewhat strange, and read like a person who had no idea what they were intending to read (an analysis of the Holocaust in socio-historical terms) or indeed what Marxism involved. Perhaps they believed the academic reduction of Marxism to a bunch of phrases like 'class struggle,' and so were shocked when the Marxists started actually talking about things. They just wandered into this and then panicked. Still, Marxism by this point is like a sieve that people can move into and out of as they please, it is an art and not a determinate entity. People can disagree with Marx persistently and take a generally negative attitude towards their works, and yet still be Marxists, so long as they are discussing Marxism. It's a question of handling an aesthetic, not of anything particularly determinate. Now, this makes it almost inevitable that such texts are going to be attacked - they might assume that they have safety and can claim a certain obscure viewpoint, but if something is objectionable to society generally, just about anybody could just drop in and attack it, and the Bordigist text is hence a barely-moving target.

Evil is something relevant to all determinate action - that which is excluded is 'evil.' Hence, Nazism was relevant to almost all determinate action in capitalism: people either judged an evil or opposed thing by the standard of Nazism, or they just didn't get it. The latter is their problem, and not a problem with the text. Now, if people object to a text because they don't understand it, they will take issue with the next text to the same extent, because it will surprise them and they will be perturbed by it - this is a dynamic which becomes tiring quickly, and one might as well just offend them and get it over with. Because we know that this Bordiga has some claws at least, or can be offensive, if people don't get Bordiga then we can accept that they would be distanced from these people - they don't continually go into their texts with expectations that they will be catering to them and their interests and view, whatever these are. If this is not presented explicitly, then it gets tiring - although of course they might well get shunned for it.

In leftist groups, certain terms are buzz-words which can lead to rejection, but these are all that people get passionate about discussing. Continually discussing topics which have the threat of expulsion tied to them on some level is not something that people should continue with, or have to. But why would they do this? Multiple reasons. Firstly, non-Marxists weren't necessarily interested in Marxism, which is both offensive to what they believe and value, and also dry and involved; but they were fine with people who just wanted to take Marxism and make it a hardly different flavour of what they already did. Marxism was based on Hegel in some ways, and he was not one for presenting 'results' emptied out by eschewing the reasons and process behind them - and when this process was supposed to be an involved examination of interconnected economic categories, then, well, this could raise problems if it isn't to be abandoned completely. And when it's abandoned, you don't have Marxism, just phrases stolen from it and used without the same reasons, mere appearance and imagery without substance. People generally preferred that Marxism be a flavour of something compatible with capital, and hence when 'Marxism' was to be discussed - and in leftist groups or discussion generally this was an alleged focus, but it would be misleading to say that anybody cared about it - it was in this form and hence in a sense a foray out, where Marxism was not to be allowed to return without a threat of expulsion for whatever reason. While Marxist theory is a somewhat open field, Marxist discussion is like being walled in on various sides until discussing Marxism is no longer an option - they have a notably problem with discussing Marx, and relating other things back to Marxism is a bridge too far for them. Relating things back to them is essentially giving them a direction which draws the things which they like and find accessible off into the distance and far from where most people were comfortable. In addition, Marxism is something which is generally excluded from actual social life, or somewhat distanced from it, and hence in a sense if it is put into interaction with this social life then it is simply a question of querying the strange creatures who call themselves 'Marxists,' and from there on the terrain becomes hostile. A 'Marxist' Party or discussion group is vulnerable to this unless it's pretty much just you and Jesus, or in general people more detached from such interaction and enthusiasm, if hypothetically they happened to have an interest in discussing these things.

Neo-Nazism, while it might seem disturbing, can take on strange forms - for instance, people who believe that British history stopped in the 1940s, and hence are fervent British nationalists trumpeting Britain's heritage. Stormfront are moderate - you could call them black nationalists, as they do want a black nation. They're just another case of 'poetry' or 'art' in lieu of politics - a certain aesthetic is what interests them, and what they pretend distinguishes them from other views. The Nazis lost over 50 years ago, but they want to pretend that their side can hardly stop winning; they pretend to be radical, but their support of Trump places them at around the same level as the CPUSA, except with no doctrinal concerns or even political views to give them even the appearance of an association with radicalism. Stormfront is, on the one hand, rich people and pretend-rich people congratulating themselves on how rich they are (though they may, as Hitler was, be poor), and living vicariously through others, and on the other hand it is a conduit for more radical political tendencies inspired by the Nazis that however have no explicit sanction there for image reasons and otherwise. In a way, you'd have to be quite radical to go to Stormfront for political reasons, when Stormfront is just about as hostile a place to political views generally as possible - but politics and seriousness there isn't the main trend, and alongside this comes things like praising 'beautiful white Amazonian' females in a way that might resemble a lyre if its player were an annoyed cat enmeshed in it. In general, Neo-Nazism rarely interacts with Nazism, so you might suspect they don't figure there's much of worth there. Without Neo-Nazis, the Nazis would just be this ever-present force of opposition, that could be realised in any way and suddenly, but Neo-Nazis served to neutralise this so far as they could do so. At least, when it was an accusation thrown at Neo-Nazis - otherwise it might still scare and disturb them.

In general, Nazism isn't quite coherent enough to constitute something exactly outside of the opposing workplace or society, and other things might oppose it. These are all seen through the lens of Nazism, but do not like Nazism try to integrate into European society as closely, and hence cannot have the same dramatic potential because they are just generally divergent rather than diverging in only certain particular and striking ways. Nazism was something which the system saw fit to associate with all that it opposed and hated, and in general all that it considered evil - that which was not incorporated into it. The Bordigists represented Auschwitz as a new and pernicious alibi in the fight against socialism, but it would seem unlikely that Auschwitz would formulate any new alibis against socialism unless socialism were somehow involved, such that this seems problematic unless we are to surmise that these Bordigists considered the Nazis to be socialists. Nonetheless, it did furnish a new alibi of sorts - an image of evil which could easily be opposed to an image of Western capitalism as good. The war hence becomes a fight against the 'real enemy,' and hence the other sides are allies - this cannot be avoided, if you would ally with them. If you take this image of evil too seriously, but hardly care about people praising capitalism or not doing so (many anarchists are like this), then ultimately capitalism's image is the only beneficiary of this. Hence, this was a clear political move - the more evil something is, the better everything else is, the more praised.

But this is in some ways a literary move. The British Empire - of course, Britain only shed some parts of its Empire, rather than changing itself completely - and for that matter the Soviet Union was hardly spotless. But when people talk about Britain during the war, they talk of course about Britain as seen through contrast with Nazism - where the objectionable elements are cleaned away. At the least, there is some capitalistic aspect which is a force for pure good in an era where socialism was established, which is really enough to make socialism dismissed. Socialism was for many years obscured precisely because all of this shine was enough to mean that it was merely a vague exception. It could easily be conflated with reformism - all it did was pick partial holes in something which was basically and clearly good. Capitalism could not be clearly attacked by forces that were not co-operative with it. Nonetheless, the main tropes of anti-socialism in the following years grew out of this war, which created a world which in any case seemed to require little alteration. Capital took recourse to a sense of 'conservatism' if you like that promoted capital because it was there, and to do this you needed to whitewash all of this to form a basis on which discussion could be promoted. This was only allowed for after the war, after capital had finally found a force firmly in opposition to it and not serving it. Discussion begun on this basis promised little for socialism, for the main point had already been conceded and any incidental dents were unlikely to make a notable impact, but attempting to eschew this basis led to instant attack and rejection.

Socialism had little headway because it had no place in that socio-political landscape. With the fall of the Soviet Union, it hence fell away generally and became irrelevant. It lost a nation which co-operated with the West, but after this brief seeming incursion in the present world situation fell away, it was left with a completely clean slate. Socialism was no longer a radical force - instead, dividing up and invading the Middle East became a Western focus and opposition to the international system was concentrated there. The left, however, was a Western creature that had made many Western norms into issues of automatic exclusion when people diverged from them, and hence became mere slaves benefitting the West in its actual issues, and quite willingly. They could not put forward a coherent and different political platform, because most of what was important to them was, strangely, things that were common.

The Nazis were an image of evil because of their domestic politics, making their nation into an image of sorts - Britain was excluded from this because they focussed on 'foreign' politics, or oppressing and fighting Indians, and so on. The British domestic policy hence became merely a mirror of Nazis' to ideology, and Nazi foreign policy focussed around their domestic area. Due to their whitewashing as states, their 'alibi,' they felt quite comfortable just throwing states up and trying to displace the nations of a given area. Hence, the Middle East were effectively confronted with the ghost of anti-Nazi forces in every way, and with expansionism in many forms. Conversely, they faced little resistance from what the West finds most offensive, namely things which seemed 'Nazi'-like, and hence the qualification that all other things were far less offensive than this would merely be an external hindrance to their struggle. It was not merely a British Empire, but instead a global capitalistic Empire, one where the major capitalist states could just take on various forms spreading like a cancer over the globe. Hence, it was a financial Empire, and had to find suitable forms of expressing this. For all the hype about the USA, after the 20th Century the world had changed dramatically, and the USA was old and its image practically ancient. This all hearkened back to a time when none of these conflicts yet existed, to a different world order, and hence such patriotism could not adequately express the new world order, if we may use this phrase in a more generic sense. Instead, new nations had to arise to do this, such as Israel. Without these, all of the new elements of the world order and so on found no expression, and hence they were necessarily forged by these powers, through whatever means. The alternative to this was 'leftism,' which also expressed this, but rather than in the form of enthusiasm for a given state through the form of Israel and so on, through taking nearly any popular movement in capitalism and excluding anything else. This served to link all of these different places together. As we are now still seeing, all nations had to be harmonised artificially through things like the Olympics to allow for the impression that all of these things were also made new by these new states and were not reducible to the old things which they themselves were chained to.

Nonetheless, the Nazis created a problem - if they were taken as a picture, how could this picture not be tampered with in the process of a war, remain focussed on a domestic, 'totalitarian' perspective rather than getting caught up in patriotic fervour and other such things which colour portraits of for instance the Spanish Armada? How, likewise, could they be secured as a source of feeling from history, where things like gladiators, colonialism and suchlike are commonplace - and often would have gone much further if they were capable of it - and might reduce their impact? Britain could in a sense add no more to the Nazis as such than they found, and hence had to draw on Nazi patterns - belligerent elected leaders, with imperial hopes, drawing on themes like blood and land and using similar gestures. If they didn't portray things in these terms, from early on, they would be speaking of a conflict, and not get immediate sanction to talk about domestic policies and what 'everyone' accepted as an exemplary evil.

How could a tendency be accepted as something outside of the system, something that was not merely reformist? A 'revolution' could mean anything, and is used to describe any loud political movement - it means nothing by itself. It could rearrange social relations, or it could just rearrange objects. A socialist often wished to be outside this or to appear so, but this was less straightforward than it might appear, they usually would just deal up a bunch of ideals that were mild enough to mean anything. This was hardly that critical. Changes to political form were commonly proposed, changes to organisation of economic units without any particular consideration of the economic context or what they were doing were common, but changes to the overall economy which changed it to something else were not common. So 'revolution' didn't really mean much. This was suspect. Still, after over a century, socialism was something of a damp squib - a movement that meant nothing, a word that meant little, a revolution that meant less than Ron Paul's, and the hope that some group might take them somewhere. Obviously, whether they wanted this depended on where they wanted to go. But this neutralisation benefitted the 'socialists,' and meant they were not distanced from the system - so why would they complain? The socialist movement was primarily a mirage, where buzz-words were everything and politics and such almost nothing.

Being outside of reformism was not as easy as saying so. A cosmetic change is cosmetic - although it can be presented in various ways, it need not be so. Ultimately, if you start from a given social system, and are plausibly locked in discourse with it, everything you're dealing with is actually capitalist. You could propose things which are compatible with socialism, such as, 'Birds can still fly,' or, 'People could still fall down ladders,' but these could be possible under other systems. These are merely illustrative, but are just as valid as most of the more 'sophisticated' portrayals of socialism. Most traits of 'socialism' are reducible to these. Socialism, of course, was what was to be contrasted to capitalist reality, and in this sense was an ideal or if you like an aim. If an ideal was fundamental to capitalism, it would be present and fully realised somewhere in capitalism, as Marx often noted in some way, unless socialism or some other external system were getting in the way. Otherwise it could hardly be that fundamental, if it may be eschewed and capitalism remain what it is at all. Many words which Marx used are mere tautologies when used outside of their specific context - all conflicts involve 'contradictions,' and as Hegel observed in dealing with motion only a contradiction with something essentially outside of a moment could dissolve it, while things like the 'law of value' in some form or other were common before Marx, and other things in the book even in context are merely vague generalities that could mean anything. In addition to this, he repeatedly calls on Hegelian concepts without giving the reader any clear suggestion of what they are to mean here, which might work in shorthand as with Marx's comments on calculus, but in a longer work just means that he's persistently relying on Hegel to gratuitously fill in the gaps in his own work. We are to just assume that the author has a similar take on Hegel, if people are to read Marx in these sections, when of course these small phrases can permit of interpretation.

Ultimately, precisely because it put too much emphasis on use-values, the law of value would disappear from the field - people did not want too much focus on specific things and how they are valued, which would disturb the act of creating values irrespective to content. Hence, this section of Marx remained unpopular among most social strata, often proclaimed something that people should avoid despite Marx using it to put forward the framework of his system. Inviting people to just throw themselves at the rest of a book without knowing what it means specifically is literally just asking for the kinds of objections commonly given to the book. A fair few people read Das Kapital - but they ultimately rejected it. For a bible, Marxism had only the Manifesto, which is a short work that at least shares with the Bible that it veers from its initial direction to something quite different. This is a short work written on request, which is not an attempt at anything too dramatic or developed, but merely a short presentation. People don't read Marx for explanations, they read it so that they can see what his problem is with everything they do. In general, then, the illusion of sides - socialism and capitalism - is imputed onto Marx's texts, in the manner of foreign imposition and for the entertainment of the viewer, in general vulgarised or hostile readings of it such that Marx is neatly placed into their own drama. These then seem clear, when they are not. A similar thing happens to the Bordigist text, except in a more modern context.

The general orientation of such a movement against the capitalist social system would be clear: it would be in constant and persistent conflict with them, within and without its own territory. It is a movement against this, that cannot simply let it standing without becoming a movement for something else. But then, national conflict can itself be amorphous, so the angle from which it did this would be important. In this, people don't like to talk about the politics of a nation (a political entity), but instead about atomised social units, which definition cannot of course be led to socialism by the 'anarchy of the market.' As such, there are so to speak multiple barriers to this being clear, and it is quite a difficult path. There is a firm contrast between statements of the form, 'Socialism is compatible with...' which could still have socialism itself be anything, and actually delineating socialism. Socialism is hence made to stand for something which is vaguely seen as good, as sharing the positive traits that other things also display, rather than divided from these things or aggressive about opposed systems. It is hence in the context of 'socialist unity' not a political movement at all, but instead a vague positive association, free to be conferred upon other things as well. A side fighting only in self-defence do not want to fight particularly, so they are weak - but only if the opposing side is particularly different in agenda, or has a notable motivation of some sort, as otherwise they will not be able to force the issue. Socialism might try in some way to attack the established order over a prolonged time, but will usually hence after any initial inroads be forced onto the defensive repeatedly, as a result of its being too similar.

In general, then, the boundaries between something which was and was not a part of the system was not clearly set forward by the word 'socialism,' or by common views on it. It could mean almost anything, depending on the personal quirks of the person whose socialism it was. On might hence derive, however, that socialism generally involved a limited interest in escaping from the society it was in. We mean this, of course, not in the sense of 'escapism,' which is idle - nobody wants to escape, and then doesn't enact this -, but instead in the general sense of a fundamental alteration. But socialism of all forms had certain common characteristics - it was associated with 'goodness' of various sorts, with happiness, with alleviation of 'ills,' with servants rather than masters, and so on from there. After the Second World War, all of this was in a sense discredited, so with the passing of the Soviet Union the few remaining stalwarts such as an obscure clause in the Labour Party's constitution which seemingly didn't make a socialist impression and others became idle and faded away. These traits could occur either in partial gains or be restricted to a pseudo-radical political change. Stalinists or 'Marxists-Leninists' associated socialism with traits attributed to the domestic association of the Soviet Union, such as efficient and strict labour, which made them able to show up in places where other currents often didn't, but also with some of the classic traits. Stalinism is hence mostly taking the traits of Western capitalism, such as wages, and then trying to show how exalted they are by taking on a Stalinist Russian form. It is the ideology of peaceful co-existence. Stalinism generally shuns anything too radical for it, albeit gradually and after the tacit acceptance that they give to 'socialists' and people who seem appropriate to this movement.

The sun sets and rises, but does the threat feared in Nazism remain through this, is this basis of evil present throughout? It generally only seems to arise when social conduct or alternatively human expression is concerned. Outside of this, how do people reassure themselves that they have a sense of good and evil? Their whole frame of reference shatters. Mostly, to people, good and evil were things that spur feelings, which hence have to be encountered in some form. But what happens when the link to this becomes missing? And this could be a problem for conservatism of the traditional sort, as time went on - people increasingly faded out and became amoral, unconcerned about their values. Yet this threat is always present, because social interaction and the presence of these ideas of evil is only experienced in the form of some particular, limited community or neighbourhood, yet this has always the danger of external elements which wish to enter - which are defined by their externality and being outside of this - and which threaten it. Hence, the movement against immigration was in a sense always likely. But this only occurs in a time when the major political currents have become idle - one is merely a vehicle for identity and dynastic politics, and the other has been replaced in its own Party. There are no more firm boundaries, and what does a nation mean when a significant proportion of it want someone elected essentially for their surname? Is it that different from the others? Still, if Nazism frightens them, it also lets them all into contact with it. It has a notable element which is not political, which hence undermines the political element. But then, so does most 'socialism.'

Hence, as we said, a denationalised and depersonalised ideology is necessarily in some ways a part of the system, hypostatised elsewhere. This describes most of socialism. But it can barely escape the halo that capitalism gained over time, a halo being something which it had often relied on. It hence became idle. To separate from the system, and posit a goal outside of it, meant to depart from this system briefly. But socialism rarely wished to do this - people joined socialism if they did mostly only because it made them happy already, when their goals were not yet set outside of the system socialism was their favoured of such goals. No difficulty was suggested. It was more like an expedition or road trip than a serious interest. But over time it became a very brief road trip. Ultimately, when 'evil' was ever-present, something that flaunted its credentials as such only to continually reduce to some warped exercise in being 'good' was a mere mirage, leading in directions which led nowhere. It could affect some people, but mostly it was not political; the left was just a way of doing penance to the UN.