Author: skzb

I play the drum.

Anti-Dühring 1 Prefaces

Forward

While I find the whole matter of how Engels made the decision to write the series of articles that became Herr Eugene Dühring’s Revolution in Science, later re-titled Anti-Dühring, to be interesting, there isn’t a great deal to say about it.  I must point out, however, his integrity in refusing to modify the book to even correct relatively trivial errors because his opponent is unable to reply.  One can’t help but compare this to certain contemporary “scholars” who commit hugely significant errors, hastily change the text, and then pretend it was always like that.  But then, the reflection that intellectual honesty was in greater supply among 19th century communists than 21st century neo-liberals is hardly surprising.

I must note one particular line that, however often I read it, jumps out at me: From the preface to the second edition,  “To me there could be no question of building the laws of dialectics into nature, but of discovering them in it and evolving them from it.”  This, in a nutshell, is the difference between science and schematism.

The laws of dialectics, as we’ll discover as we continue, are simply the reflection in the human mind of the laws of nature in the most general sense (and, of course, laws that govern the movement of society are simply an aspect of the laws of nature, unless one chooses to believe that human society occurred as a drop of sweat from Zeus’s brow).

The transformation of socialism from a Utopian ideal to a scientific discipline is the essence of the contribution of Marx and Engels to the understanding of human society.  How this transformation took place, and what it means, forms the first part of  Anti-Dühring.

 

Anti-Dühring Take 2 Forward

Many years ago I started, although never finished, blogging a close reading of Anti-Dühring, by Frederick Engels, one of the Marxist texts that I most admire. I would like to believe that I’ve learned a little since then.  Moreover, between the climate crisis, the headlong rush toward World War III, and, in the US, the bipartisan assaults on democratic rights, understanding the processes that move society is more urgent than ever before.

From music to martial arts to writing to cooking, one thing that is common to everything I’ve studied is that there is no wrong time to return to the fundamentals, and the subjects covered in this book are, with regard to socialism, as fundamental as it gets.  With that in mind, I am going to make a fresh start at this.

Please note that my agenda this time (as opposed to, for example, my posts on The Revolution Betrayed) is deepening my own understanding, not convincing anyone else. For that reason, responding to comments or criticism is not going to be a priority, although I’ll make an effort to answer honest questions.  To me, Marxism is a tool for understanding the development of society with a view toward using that understanding to effect change—in particular, to bring about a rational society by abolishing private property in the means of production and creating a society based on a full economic, political, and social equality.  Those of you who either agree with me or are genuinely curious, are invited to follow along.

Anti-Dühring was written as a series of articles in Volksstaat and Vorwärts between September of 1876 and June of 1878.  I will be using an edition first printed in the USSR in 1947 for sentimental reasons: this was my brother’s copy.  It is also available as a PDF here.

Part 1: Prefaces

May Day Post

It’s the day of international working class solidarity, so a few quick answers to some things I’ve been hearing.

1) No serious revolutionist has ever wanted to make things worse in order to incite revolution. Utter rubbish.  Especially now; things are quite bad enough. What’s missing is consciousness that there is a way forward, a way out of the mess.

2) Being a revolutionary socialist does not mean one wishes to rush out and make a revolution. No one, as Lenin said, can suck a revolution out of his thumb. Being a revolutionary socialist means one is convinced a revolutionary crisis will take place regardless of anyone’s desire. Victory, however, is not guaranteed. For that, preparation is necessary.  Preparation means, primarily, bringing socialist consciousness and theoretical preparation to the working class, and the building of a revolutionary party prepared to see the job through to its end.

3) We aren’t there yet. But the World Socialist Web Site is now the mostly widely read socialist publication in the world, especially among workers, so we’re getting there. My own role in this is trivial, yet not useless; when I go onto Twitter or Facebook and explain my views on something that is happening today, insofar as my explanation is correct, there’s someone whose beliefs have been shaken up by events in the world, and who may be ready to listen, and possibly join the fight.  See the last sentence of point 1) above.

Happy May Day

When writers get stuck

Someone on Twitter said she was stuck on her current project and asked for suggestions for getting unstuck. I started to reply, then realized it would turn into a huge thread.  So, here I am.  Note: as I understand it, stuck on current project is not the same phenomenon as “writer’s block.”   The former is, “I don’t know what the next sentence is,” the latter is, “I can’t write and I don’t know why.” So far, I’ve never had writer’s block, so I cannot pretend to give advice on how to deal with it.

There are many tricks for getting the next sentence on the page.  None of them work for everyone, and none of them work all the time for anyone.  The most I can say is that if you collect enough of them, there is a good chance one of them will help in any given situation.

Here are some of the methods that have worked for me:

1. Write a long, tedious passage about your protagonist not knowing what to do, at the end of which he or she might figure it out, at which point you delete the long, tedious passage.

2. Fallback scenes.  Raymond Chandler famously said that if he didn’t know what would happen next, he had someone come through the door with a gun. In my case, when in doubt, have a meal. In any case, this scene, also, can be deleted once it gets you unstuck.

3. Look for tropes or motifs in the earlier chapters. You very likely have them even if you aren’t aware of it.  For example, suppose in chapter 1 someone is looking through a window, and then in chapter 3 someone else is looking through a window.  Now that you’re aware of it, you can play with it, and, have someone look through a window, tell us what’s there, and possibly generate something interesting.  Another thing about this method is that some critic might notice it and decide it’s Art.  I once did that with a series of puns based on lines from Hamlet; when I didn’t know what would happen, I’d pick another pun and write toward it, and by the time I’d get there I had a good feel for where to go afterwards.  In that case, no one thought it was art.

4. Switch points of view.  Write a scene from your antagonist’s point of view, or that of a side character; what are those people up to right now?  And (as always) if it works to get you unstuck, feel free to delete it.

5. Consider your structure.  This is similar to 3, but instead of motifs, see if you have a pattern in the types of scenes you’ve been writing.  For example, conversation followed by a fight followed by a chase.  If you see a pattern like that, you can continue it, or consciously break it; either might help get the words moving again.

6. Reread what you have so far while asking yourself, “What does the reader think is going on?” and then figure out a way to mess with the reader’s head. Messing with the reader’s head is always a good thing. It causes them pain and they will thank you for it.

I might expand this as I think of other methods I’ve used.  Meanwhile, writers: What are some of your methods?