Get her to read “Left wing Communism an Infantile Disorder” by Lenin

I agree with you and did mean to come off as saying revolution was totally guaranteed, I might have been caught up in the need to demonstrate optimism such that I didn’t make it fully clear, the same conditions that disillusion and make it easier for us to reach people and not just get ignored, also serves reaction and help them make new fascists, so we can’t afford to slow in our own efforts, we need to reach as many as can be reached before things get too bad, for the best chances.

Edit: “didn’t mean”, typo

This also demonstrates why the Capitalists (those who hold Capital) are so out of touch with humanity as a whole, they are the closest to their god, Capital, than anyone else, and thus are it’s greatest personification of it’s nature. It’s very embodiment of alienation, seeing everything within the binary view of “those that exploit” and the “cattle to be exploited”. And yet at the same time they are not really in charge, they are puppets to their god, Capital, this thing that isn’t sentient, isn’t even alive, but that has rules, rules that they too are forced to follow lest they become “lowly cattle” like the rest of us, and the closer they are to Capital, the further from humanity they become and may even see it’s loss as a “fate worse than death”.

And so from their twisted view, a billion people, “cattle”, dead, is a small price to pay if it can even give them just a small chance of staying close to Capital, and protecting it against the rebellion of humanity casting off it’s yoke. Making us Communists, who seek to free humanity, and who has the tools to do so, it’s greatest enemy.

Of course we Communists know that the seeds of a systems destruction exists within that very system, and that the death, one way or another, of that system is inevitable, as nothing is eternal, but for the Capitalists who are closest to Capital, seeing the death of the system the same as if it was their own death, and who have little connection with humanity for which they are so a odds with, see it’s death as the death of everything, as it is all they hold dear, all that matters to them, and so terror drives them to mythology, to see Capitalism as eternal, or at least as something they can make eternal, to keep the reality of it’s loss at bay. It is also why when it is collapsing they get more and more unhinged, they are checking themselves out from reality as they get more desperate, as it becomes harder to deny reality, they must insulate themselves from it further.

Edit: I think that maybe existence itself would be the one exception from nothing being eternal, as actual nothingness can’t exist as it is completely self contradictory at the most basic, conceptual level, meaning you can’t get something from nothing, and that means that anything that does exist must have derived from something else that exists or existed. It’s that basic physics law of “energy cannot be created or destroyed, only changed from one form to another”, that some form or another of “existence” must have always existed, but the forms within it change and aren’t eternal, and with humans being entirely the result of the configuration of atoms in a certain pattern, as a result of a long, slow, stupid process of evolution, and thus also not eternal. However, humans don’t exist alone, but as a whole with the conditions of the universe itself, so we pass on knowledge to our children, and eventually uncover the nature of reality, IE “advance science” and so eventually travel amongst the stars, do what would have been thought impossible before, because a thing is greater then the sum of it’s parts as it’s configuration enables it to do things that those parts could not do alone, humanity across generations do things no single human could before even have dreamed of.

Edit Edit: Or maybe I should say “energy” rather than “existence”, but things are getting a little removed from the concert here, and I don’t have a deep enough understanding of physics to go deeper so maybe I should stop.

My hope is to be able to join the PSL (U.S. based Marxist Leninist party, short for Party for Socialism and Liberation) properly someday (rather than just donating and watching webinars as a part of the Action Network). For now I have a lot of mental and physical health issues I’m working to overcome, with the Social Anxiety being my biggest obstacle to actually going out and touching organized, revolutionary grass.

Part of understanding Dialectical Materialism is in understanding that the small but growing thing (if properly protected so that it can continue to grow) rather than the big but crumbling thing, represents the future. And it is from this that Revolutionary Optimism is born, as the seeds of a given systems destruction and replacement exist within it’s own contradictions, and is grown through the growth of those vary contradictions. Revolutionary Optimism isn’t blind optimism, it isn’t just having “faith” in it, but is actually a thing of reason, as the small but growing thing starts small, but doesn’t stay small, the big but crumbling thing is big but doesn’t stay big, the contradictions get worse and the seemingly impossible Revolution becomes inevitable. This dialectic exists in the Revolution itself as well, gorilla warfare involve taking the supplies, weapons and ammo ETC of the enemy such as to support it’s growth, and in this way it grows while the state shrinks, until eventually the Revolution begins switching to conventional warfare and operates as a new state that slowly replaces the old state.

The depression you speak of isn’t from Dialectical Materialism itself, but rather from awareness, Dialectical Materialism can grow an awareness (though it isn’t the only way to become aware of the horrors of the system), but also within Dialectical Materialism exists it’s solution, to the root cause of the depression that is the very oppression itself.

Dialectical and Historical Materialism is an irreplaceable and vital tool for achieving the cure. (Revolution) Once you start you cannot stop, only partial understanding leads to errors, of which certain ones, or too many, can be fatal, and every opportunity to put it into Practice, to actually use it, is vital as the Theory can only be properly understood through it’s application to Practice, otherwise you risk slipping into ultra-leftism and/or utopian thinking.

You need to not only read the philosophy, economics, and history in general (though you still need that too), but it is also important to read about the actual successes, as within those works is the experience of those Comrades who actually succeeded, which can also help with Revolutionary Optimism both by showing how it can be done, but in showing that it can succeed even in the most hopeless of circumstances if we Communists play our cards right.

If you find yourself depressed, you might want to look at what you are reading, if you are reading too many depressing works that go over all the horrible things that happen, then maybe you should counter balance that by reading of the victories of the past and current Socialist countries that actually achieved some stage of Socialism.

I’ve been trying to post/talk more online as I have crippling social anxiety and I’m hoping it’ll work as baby steps towards eventually being able to handle more in the real world.

I’ve been a part of the PSL’s Action Network for some quantity of months and it is better than nothing, but I want to do more. For Revolutionary Optimism, good examples help, in the US for me it is seeing the efforts being made by the PSL, and across the world for me it is seeing the huge successes and efforts of the Chinese.

Reading Theory also helps, but even more so of the successes of Socialist efforts in particular.

Also about the PSL, they do teach about previous fights and successes of the working class in the US, probably to also help build Revolutionary Optimism and to demonstrate that it is possible to win even here in the heart of darkness. (Che Guavera would be envious)

I’ve also struggled a lot with feelings of helplessness, it helps to break things down into small pieces and just do one at a time, “baby steps”, a little bit each day and you can slowly get better, and along the way you start to feel more like you can actually do things, and the helplessness slowly reduces. Don’t expect it to be quick, easy, or something you just solve once and you’re done, you have to keep at it, and each time you can do a new thing, the next new thing is slightly less hard to convince yourself that you can slowly get the ability to do that too if you only stick with it. Basically, “life is a journey” and you get to your destination by putting one foot in front of the other and repeating, rather then by being fixated on the end goal.

Same with everything out of Hollywood and most games on Steam, anything the Capitalist Ruling Class has control over is inevitability used against us, and should be treated as already compromised. Don’t be surprised if it turns out that they are using AI on Social Media (that they control especially) to subtle manipulate everyone, not just with fake accounts, but complex algorithmic control on who sees what and in what context, and even more, like we know they shadow ban, but what if they also shadow edit peoples post, like the poster sees the original, but strangers unlikely to contact the poster directly sees a modified version of the post that subtly redirects it’s meaning. The possibilities are endless and shows why AI can’t just be ignored, why the US is so desperate to build out data centers despite the tensions, and why China is working hard to advance it also, less the future be in the hands of the US. Don’t underestimate AI, it is a very rapidly advancing tech that the Capitalists will and are using against us.

Class Consciousness doesn’t happen merely because things get bad, there needs to be a Revolutionary Party using Revolutionary Theory there to guide the masses towards it. You’re best bet is to join an ML Party (like the PSL) so you can learn how to slowly awake Class Consciousness in the masses. The Material Conditions determines the Conscious, that includes things like perceived benefit, for example the super profits that the US has from the super exploitation of the Global South, which makes it much harder to reach people as they have systemic incentives to not see the root of the problem, in addition to life long indoctrination to keep them from treating Capitalism as anything but a static, eternal, law of nature itself. As the spoils of imperialism dries up for the US (and it is) the masses will feel less benefit and more burden, which makes it easier, however they still need help getting the rest of the way because of the life long indoctrination. That is our duty, as Communists, especially as Marxist Leninist’s as the most Scientific root of Socialism as a Science, we must guide the people towards Class Consciousness and when they are ready, towards Revolution. We can not decide for the people, they must decide themselves, as long as they still have faith in voting in the US, in the Reformist path, they must be shown it’s problems, it’s in-feasibility, so that they decide on their own that Revolution is the only way, and you can’t just tell them so (at least not the most backward elements of the working class), they must be shown, they need to experience it for themselves to finally believe it and become willing to pursue a different path. Also this is not something that can be done by a single person alone, but only through collective effort, “many hands makes light work” (might be misremembering the exact quote) that is why organizing is so important, it also gives hands on experience which is apparently vital for a proper understanding of Theory (it must be married with Practice to test, refine, and make actually useful), and ones Comrades in an organization can also support you by helping you better understand theory and by having your back.