I will be continuously updating this as I get further into it. Some reading I will leave undecided but will figure out as I go.
Introduction
The world is heading for disaster.[1]
- The current social order is unsustainable and solving its problems would require change on the scale of revolution.
- There has not been a successful revolution away from capitalism.
- Previous mass movements fail to translate to today, although they can be learned from.
- I want to figure out how to get to whatever comes next.
- Previous mass movements fail to translate to today, although they can be learned from.
- There has not been a successful revolution away from capitalism.
I am lost for any exciting or promising political projects. This summer I quit my job because it felt like an intellectual and political dead end, and I now have the luxury of using my time solely in pursuit of finding something that will motivate me. This means either changing my current understanding of the world or discovering new horizons for political action, or both. If neither of these prove sufficient, answering this question may require me to just figure out some new ideas.
I am putting together the following syllabus with the suspicion that these trains of thought have yet to be exhausted, and might lend themselves to further elaboration today. Each week I've tried to select readings that fall into both of the two categories mentioned above, either questioning my underlying beliefs or presenting new contemporary political horizons. Also some stuff is just for fun.
“Only a crisis––actual or perceived––produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable.” ― Milton Friedman (lol)
Reading list
Week 1:
The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche, first half
Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline, p. 1-106
Curtis Yarvin deep dive:
Week 2:
The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche, second half
Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline, p. 106-204
The Origin of Capitalism by Ellen Meiksins Wood
Week 3:
The Gay Science by Friedrich Nietzsche
Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline, p. 204-308
Colin Drumm deep dive:
Week 4:
The Gay Science by Friedrich Nietzsche
Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline, p. 308-435 + Vollman's afterward
Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber
- See also: What's Left of the World: Education, Identity and the Post-Work Political Imagination by David J. Blacker
Week 5:
The Gay Science by Friedrich Nietzsche
Boys book club pick
Phil A. Neel and communist geography check in:
- Forest and Factory
- The Knife At Your Throat
- Phil A. Neel with Komite Parts 1 and 2
Week 6:
Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
Boys book club pick
The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han
- See also: What is Power? and Capitalism and the Death Drive
Week 7:
Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
Boys book club pick
CHINA:
- How China Escaped Shock Therapy By Isabella M. Weber
- Scattered Sand: The Story of China's Rural Migrants by Hsiao-Hung Pai
Week 8:
Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
Boys book club pick
The Concept of the Political by Carl Schmitt
Week 9:
Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche, p. 1-76
Boys book club pick
Charlotte Fang, exo-science, et al. check-in:
Week 10:
Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche, p. 77-142
Boys book club pick
Ethics by Baruch Spinoza
Week 11:
Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche, p. 143-246s
Boys book club pick
MUG:
- MUG Cadre School Curriculum
- "Marx and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat" by Hal Draper
- “Left-Wing” Communism: an Infantile Disorder by Vladimir Lenin
Week 12:
On the Genealogy of Morality by Friedrich Nietzsche
Boys book club pick
Week 13:
On the Genealogy of Morality by Friedrich Nietzsche
Boys book club pick
Week 14:
On the Genealogy of Morality by Friedrich Nietzsche
Boys book club pick
Week 15:
The Antichrist or Ecce Homo by Friedrich Nietzsche
Boys book club pick
Week 16:
The Antichrist or Ecce Homo by Friedrich Nietzsche
Boys book club pick
Each day I will also read one random article selected from the tabs I have open.
I will also practice Chinese for at least an hour a day on Duolingo and HelloChinese (hopefully I'll be able to do a program or audit a class in the spring).
I plan on writing every day. Not all writing will result in a post here, but I aim to have 100 posts by the end of the year. Some of this writing will concern what I read, and even respond to it. Some of it won't.
Please send additional reading recommendations to:
In college, I wrote a longer explanation of why I think the world is headed for cataclysm. While a few years out of date, verbose, and colored by immature idealism, I still agree with its core argument. ↩︎