I feel like I understand communist theory pretty well at a basic level, and I believe in it, but I just don’t see what part of it requires belief in an objective world of matter. I don’t believe in matter and I’m still a communist. And it seems that in the 21st century most people believe in materialism but not communism. What part of “people should have access to the stuff they need to live” requires believing that such stuff is real? After all, there are nonmaterial industries and they still need communism. Workers in the music industry are producing something that nearly everyone can agree only exists in our heads. And they’re still exploited by capital, despite musical instruments being relatively cheap these days, because capital owns the system of distribution networks and access to consumers that is the means of profitability for music. Spotify isn’t material, it’s a computer program. It’s information. It’s a thoughtform. Yet it’s still a means of production that ought to be seized for the liberation of the musician worker. What does materialism have to do with any of this?
This is what I disagree with. I cannot do that and many can’t. I think even the implication this is possible is a blatantly false suggestion implanted in people’s heads by years of liberalism and notions of Christian “free will”.
I am not the exception. I am the rule, made more obvious for everyone to see. Nobody has control over themselves and nobody can change themselves to be better. Self improvement is a myth. The only thing that can come close is incremental change of one’s surroundings, which can eventually change oneself.
The idea that we can change ourselves is a comfortable lie, told to make ourselves feel like the rational, superior beings we consider ourselves to be. But we are not. We have more understanding than most animals, yes, but our main difference is a marked increase in pattern finding. This does not imply an increased ability to change those patterns within our own brain, only an ability to understand patterns so our very small ability can be multiplied, our small pushes applied in just the right place to give the outcome we need.
We do not have bigger pushes than other animals, and make no mistake, we are all animals, we just have an easier time noticing where to put them
So we can “change ourselves”, but in the sense that humans can change other humans, and that we can influence our own thoughts in subtle but important ways. But that is entirely different from the classic notion of “self-improvement”, of “mind over matter”.
Important edit: to be clear, I don’t mean any of this in a hostile way. I guess i just say this as an opportunity to put my manifesto down