Mahmood Mamdani, father of the newly elected mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, shared how he was introduced to Marx:
I was in my room. There was a knock at the door. Two gentlemen in trench coats and hats said, “FBI.” I thought, “Wow, just like on television.” They sat down. They were there to find out why I had gone – because this turned out to be big – it is after Montgomery that King organized his march on Selma. They wanted to know who had influenced me. After one hour of probing, the guy said, “Do you like Marx?”
I said, “I haven’t met him.”
Guy said, “No, no, he’s dead.”
“Wow, what happened?”
“No, no, he died long ago.”
I thought the guy Marx had just died. So then, “Why are you asking me if he died long ago?”
“No, he wrote a lot. He wrote that poor people should not be poor.”
I said, “Sounds amazing.”
I’m giving you a sense of how naïve I was. After they left, I went to the library to look for Marx. So that was my introduction to Karl Marx.
so you’re saying that it would be praxis if i had a child so that they can get elected and spread socialism throughout the country; thank you for the idea comrade. lol
He was treated as an important philosopher and was a recurrent author used to criticize the current system. and we used a lot of excerpts from his manifesto, das Kapital…
But he wasn’t seen as you’d depict him in communist countries.
We confronted his ideas with Arendt’s for example…
Ultimately, we weren’t taught that he was bad or good, we were just taught his thoughts among other philosophers’ and we used them to write our own essays, form our own opinions.
Without knowing how that was done, it sounds like it just as easily could have been done deliberately to demonize him, by comparing him to Arendt’s theories.
Excuse me? Alongside Hitler?? Im so sorry, the United State’s education system is fucked up. Well I guess it isn’t that surprising. You were also taught that WWII was won by the great and powerful USA.
yes i was and that’s the context of why i asked my teacher about marx; it don’t remember exact wording, but it was to the effect that evil people like hitler and marx had fooled europeans in the past into committing many atrocities so the united states created the un so that the united states wouldn’t have to keep protecting the world by itself.
the extent to which the ruling class has convinced us that it’s dangerous is surprising sometimes.
i learned about marx because my teacher & my father reacted VERY strongly when i asked my teacher who marx was and she called my dad to “warn” him.
if they had neutral (or maybe even positive) reactions, i probably wouldn’t have bothered to search for him online at the school library.
Mahmood Mamdani, father of the newly elected mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, shared how he was introduced to Marx:
I was in my room. There was a knock at the door. Two gentlemen in trench coats and hats said, “FBI.” I thought, “Wow, just like on television.” They sat down. They were there to find out why I had gone – because this turned out to be big – it is after Montgomery that King organized his march on Selma. They wanted to know who had influenced me. After one hour of probing, the guy said, “Do you like Marx?”
I said, “I haven’t met him.”
Guy said, “No, no, he’s dead.”
“Wow, what happened?”
“No, no, he died long ago.”
I thought the guy Marx had just died. So then, “Why are you asking me if he died long ago?”
“No, he wrote a lot. He wrote that poor people should not be poor.”
I said, “Sounds amazing.”
I’m giving you a sense of how naïve I was. After they left, I went to the library to look for Marx. So that was my introduction to Karl Marx.
https://www.warscapes.com/conversations/conversation-mahmood-mamdani
so you’re saying that it would be praxis if i had a child so that they can get elected and spread socialism throughout the country; thank you for the idea comrade. lol
I mean, Kamala Harris’ parents were Marxists too… The coconut can roll pretty far from the tree apparently
What. The. Hell. That’s actually crazy. I wonder what country that is…
In my highschool we actually had to study him. And it was far from a
☭communist country.Edit: lmao why the hell do I have a shortcut to automatically replace communist with ☭
To be fair, if you weren’t raised in a socialist country, it’s almost certain that you were taught a caricature of Marx and Marxist thought.
He was treated as an important philosopher and was a recurrent author used to criticize the current system. and we used a lot of excerpts from his manifesto, das Kapital…
But he wasn’t seen as you’d depict him in communist countries. We confronted his ideas with Arendt’s for example…
Ultimately, we weren’t taught that he was bad or good, we were just taught his thoughts among other philosophers’ and we used them to write our own essays, form our own opinions.
Without knowing how that was done, it sounds like it just as easily could have been done deliberately to demonize him, by comparing him to Arendt’s theories.
I translated an online course with deepL, that sums up what we’ve seen on him (allegedly, I don’t remember exactly as it was back in high school!):
https://hastebin.ianhon.com/a13c
Sorry, didn’t find any other way to paste this long ass text without polluting the comments so I used this.
Actually not the worst way I’ve seen him taught, far from it in fact.
I was born and raised in the United States and my school’s history books mentioned his name alongside Hitler, but didn’t say why so I asked.
Excuse me? Alongside Hitler?? Im so sorry, the United State’s education system is fucked up. Well I guess it isn’t that surprising. You were also taught that WWII was won by the great and powerful USA.
yes i was and that’s the context of why i asked my teacher about marx; it don’t remember exact wording, but it was to the effect that evil people like hitler and marx had fooled europeans in the past into committing many atrocities so the united states created the un so that the united states wouldn’t have to keep protecting the world by itself.
I had never realized how much propaganda they feed the children in the US…
the isreali children get it much worse
Definitely yeah they’re on another level
Yep! Often times reaction backfires.