No.
Political theory is the exact opposite of fun and exciting.
You don’t want to learn, you want to be entertained. Those are two entirely different things. You are basically asking how to become a well-trained athlete by sitting on the couch.
I worry that reading through Marxist books would be boring. Are there any fun and exciting ways to study without losing focus or getting bored quickly?
Submitted 8 hours ago by DylanMc6@lemmy.dbzer0.com to [deleted]
Comments
AskewLord@piefed.social 8 hours ago
DagwoodIII@piefed.social 7 hours ago
I beg to differ.
A good teacher finds a way to excite the student and stir their imagination.
I’ve learned plenty of things because I associated it with something I enjoyed.
SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works 5 hours ago
I agree, to keep with the athlete analogy that was used earlier a teacher is like a coach.
You don’t need them really, you could put in all the work yourself and get results. But a good teacher/coach can help you set priorities, avoid common setbacks and keep you on track.
Learning something new is never easy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make it way less difficult with help
AskewLord@piefed.social 6 hours ago
No, a good teacher guides you. You still have to do the work.
If you don’t do the work, you learn nothing.
zxqwas@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Why are you so dead set on learning something you find boring?
Learning to do things you don’t find fun is useful for actually doing the boring chores as an adult. But I get the feeling you did enough of that at school.
There are tons of things to learn, I’m sure you’ll find one of them fun.
DagwoodIII@piefed.social 7 hours ago
Unpopular opinion.
Studying Marx is a waste of time.
Focus on real world politics and what can be done right now.
An hour spent reading a book is an hour that could have been spent putting up posters for a candidate.
You aren’t going to get a revolution any time soon, but the next election is coming up fast.
Mayoman68@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Genuine question, why is campaigning for the Democratic Party a better use of ones time than learning Marx(or any political philosophy text for that matter). To me this claim sounds absurd, because in no other activity is it seem as reasonable to put action over theory, instead of as inseparable, but I would be curious to hear your justification for your claim.
DagwoodIII@piefed.social 6 hours ago
You do understand how elections work, right? The voting booth only cares about how many votes get cast.
Maybe instead of reading theory, you should study how politics works in the real world.
Look up Jerry Falwell.
He was a televangelist with an extensive mailing list. His plan was simple. Local GOP clubs decide who is going to take job. Things like county clerks and sheriffs. Falwell would flood every meeting with his people. If there were twenty folks at the last meeting, Falwell’s Moral Majority would show up with fifty. It didn’t take long for the grassroots campaign to sway the higher ups in the GOP.
Look at Leftists who have actually won elections in the US. Neither AOC or Mamdani spent a lot of time talking about Marx, they talked about saving consumers money and making their lives better.
And if you need a good example of action over theory look at the transportation network. How many bus drivers or train operators can repair their machines? Not many. Or food service. Think a lot of cooks understand the chemistry of baking? An ambulance technician doesn’t need to know advanced cardiology to do CPR.
Finally, if you plan on playing the ‘Democrats are bad’ card, think on this.
Back in the day, Frederick Douglas supported Abe Lincoln over a candidate who was 100% opposed to slavery. Lincoln was fine with the south keeping their slaves id it meant keeping the Union.
Douglas did a cold-blooded assessment and decided that it was better to help Lincoln win and be able to get close to him later, than it would be to lose and not have a chance to make a difference.
AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 8 hours ago
Mark Fisher’s KPunk blog/Capitalist Realism. That and/or play Disco Elysium.
DylanMc6@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 hours ago
Disco Elysium
That game is $39.99 on Steam. Can free-to-play help?
SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world 7 hours ago
If you want to learn about communism you have to participate in capitalism first.
trashcroissant@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 hours ago
I listen to audiobooks while doing something mindless like cross stitching, a mindless game, or chores. It keeps my brain from drifting or going into autopilot.
It might also help to find podcasts or commentary that breaks down the books, but also read the books before or after. Those types of breakdowns will usually connect the theory with current examples, which helps reinforce the learning.
tate@lemmy.sdf.org 8 hours ago
I apologize for not directly answering your question, but I think you could benefit from this insight that helped me tremendously:
Boredom comes from within. Nothing is objectively boring. Introspection is your friend. Understand what is happening inside your mind when you find yourself bored, and you can turn it off - just that simple.
jwiggler@sh.itjust.works 7 hours ago
Don’t listen to people who say it’s not possible to have fun learning about this stuff. It can be. I can be boring, too, depending on your interests. Sounds like you’re worried about wading through things like Capital, Communist Manifesto, etc. Totally warranted – they were written in a different time and for a different audience. That’s not to say that there isn’t good stuff to get out of primary sources, but it’s more difficult.
I recommend listening Karl Marx: A Nineteenth Century Life to get some context as to who he was, what movements he was a part of, the state of the world he grew up and lived in, and a breakdown of the things he believed, things he changed his mind on, etc. It gives you important context. You don’t need to slog through it or do a ton of mental work. Just listen and absorb it. If you don’t understand a section, replay it and try to do some mental work to “get it,” but if it doesn’t click, move on and keep listening. Over time, you will begin to understand.
I also recommend listening to Michael Parenti’s Blackshirts and Reds. Very accessible.
Chippys_mittens@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Take lots of stimulants and disengage the critical thought part of your brain.
TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 hours ago
Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird’s song “The Butcher’s Sher” is a fairly quick summary of (including some quotations from) Capital, but in general I think there’s value in just reading the text.
Vittorio@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
There Is Cafiero amzn.eu/d/0fuCvMBi It’s a compendium (read summary) with comments and letters. But if i Remember correctly it’s Just volume 1 but even worse i don’t know if there Is in english.
Vittorio@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Or… Go to work see yourself 😂
yesman@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Why do you want to study Marxism in the first place? Most people do that because it’s interesting to them. The chances that that knowledge will help you in your life is vanishingly small.
You don’t need to understand Marx to criticize capitalism. All you need to do is exist under capitalism.
InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
This is very true. Tho I think its still important to understand the basic critiques from Marx. Otherwise a student might get swept into thinking we don’t live in a capital dominated system.
cough ancaps cough