Good essay all around. While the current world system we live in is dominated by the capitalism, and it may seem like it has been around forever it is important to know that it is relatively recent mode of production. The 'Long 20th Century' is a book I read earlier this year that may interest you. In that book, Italian marxist Giovanni Arrighi traces the origins of the modern capitalist system to the medieval Italian city states. Fidel Castro also makes a similar case in his 1991 interview in Guadalajara and points out to how new the concept of socialism is in comparison.
I generally don't watch war movies these days, but you nailed it with the "there are no anti-war films" quote. Even one of the most anti-war movie produced in the west, 'Platoon' falls short, because we never see the Vietnamese perspective. Years ago when I was in a NATO military, the majority of recruits watched 'Full Metal Jacket' at one point or another, and what is supposed to be an anti-war movie ends amping up the troops for basic training.
Lastly, you nailed it with your explanation of dialectics and materialism. I found these topics intimidating when I started reading into marxism a few years ago and a straight forward and simple explanation with diagrams like what you have is key to learning. Cheers.
Hey, thanks a lot! I might have to check out that book 😁
Truffaut was part of the New Wave in French cinema along with people like Godard (who was a Marxist at least to some extent), and wrote that quote in the 70s. Since then we also learned that the US Army funds war movies and lends some of their equipment for them too, but gets to have final say on the script because of this. It's a very naked form of propaganda.
More precisely (I had to look it up), he said "every war movie ends up being pro-war", which I feel is even stronger than what I paraphrased: no anti-war movie can mean they can be ambiguous. Every war movie ends up being pro-war leaves no room for doubt.
This is just making me think I need to finally sit down and watch the Battle of Algers lol
Good essay all around. While the current world system we live in is dominated by the capitalism, and it may seem like it has been around forever it is important to know that it is relatively recent mode of production. The 'Long 20th Century' is a book I read earlier this year that may interest you. In that book, Italian marxist Giovanni Arrighi traces the origins of the modern capitalist system to the medieval Italian city states. Fidel Castro also makes a similar case in his 1991 interview in Guadalajara and points out to how new the concept of socialism is in comparison.
I generally don't watch war movies these days, but you nailed it with the "there are no anti-war films" quote. Even one of the most anti-war movie produced in the west, 'Platoon' falls short, because we never see the Vietnamese perspective. Years ago when I was in a NATO military, the majority of recruits watched 'Full Metal Jacket' at one point or another, and what is supposed to be an anti-war movie ends amping up the troops for basic training.
Lastly, you nailed it with your explanation of dialectics and materialism. I found these topics intimidating when I started reading into marxism a few years ago and a straight forward and simple explanation with diagrams like what you have is key to learning. Cheers.
Hey, thanks a lot! I might have to check out that book 😁
Truffaut was part of the New Wave in French cinema along with people like Godard (who was a Marxist at least to some extent), and wrote that quote in the 70s. Since then we also learned that the US Army funds war movies and lends some of their equipment for them too, but gets to have final say on the script because of this. It's a very naked form of propaganda.
More precisely (I had to look it up), he said "every war movie ends up being pro-war", which I feel is even stronger than what I paraphrased: no anti-war movie can mean they can be ambiguous. Every war movie ends up being pro-war leaves no room for doubt.
This is just making me think I need to finally sit down and watch the Battle of Algers lol
I highly recommend Battle of Algiers! I saw it recently and it was good. There’s a 1972 interview about that movie on Redsails too