5 in NoJoMo 2017

Getting into the swing after a few days, or maybe my meds are kicking in. Who knows?

Would you read a controversial book, such as “Mein Kampf” or “The Communist Manifesto”?

I’ve read The Communist Manifesto a couple of times. The first was out of sheer curiosity. My dad had a copy in his book collection, dating back to his college studies. He’d taken Russian as a minor in college. Then he went to try and kill Commies for a living.

I read it again in college, and was even less enthused. I guess, maybe, I can see how someone might be intrigued by the ideas, but I never was. I do believe in freedom, and surrendering to an all-encompassing government that leads you to whatever never really appealed to me. What Is To Be Done I found more compelling.

It’s incredible that so many people subscribed to the idea of the eventuality of socialism. Many still do. I seem to remember one of Obama’s inspirations still, in the 21st Century, referencing Mao.

But, then, it wasn’t that long ago that Chomsky and Herman published Distortions at fourth hand.

Hitler, too, believed in the eventual triumph of Socialism. Lenin had drawn a distinction between agrarian Russia, and industrial Western Europe.

Hitler, of course, was also littered with bad early 20th Century pseudoscience, and anti-Semitism. I’d imagine his rant would be filled with the same if I cared enough to read it.

Maybe that’s a polite way to say, and this’ll get the Antifa kids amped, “FUCK HITLER.”

If I had the luxury of doing that sort of “work,” I might like to explore these things further. That said, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be accepted in modern academia. Next Saturday marks the 99th anniversary of the end of World War I, and I don’t think it gets the attention it deserves.

For tomorrow, since I’ve been asked about when I’m going to write about it.....

Something your significant other is into that you are not?