I think history is important, but why
I think that's a normal thing to say, however, by political theory I mean studying how different modes of production, feudalism, capitalism, socialism, work, what their proposals are, the philosophies that they base themselves on, or just the ideas and logic that they base their proposals on, their history, economics, and the hidtory of the world in general, to fact-check them,
Edit: Above I was going to ask why is political theory, propaganda, but I wanted to mention what I mean and what I think is usually meant by political theory in discussions about it, you can see that if you go to websites like the marxist internet archive, the anarchist library, or the mises institute, those are the three I am mainly using for economics, and the other things I mentioned, besides history,
I want to make a decision after I learn those things and talk to others about it, so that I can have the lowest chance of making a mistake,
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I really like this writing about authority, and it's not long:
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-are-we-good-enough
[automerge]1730111905[/automerge]
"
About the same time a like quarrel raged in Russia, and its cause was this. There were in Russia 20 million serfs. For generations past they had been under the rule, or rather the birch-rod, of their owners. They were flogged for tilling their soil badly, flogged for want of cleanliness in their households, flogged for imperfect weaving of their cloth, flogged for not sooner marrying their boys and girls – flogged for everything. Slavishness, improvidence, were their reputed characteristics.
Now came the Utopists and asked nothing short of the following: Complete liberation of the serfs; immediate abolition of any obligation of the serf towards the lord. More than that: immediate abolition of the lord’s jurisdiction and his abandonment of all the affairs upon which he formerly judged, to peasants’ tribunals elected by the peasants and judging, not in accordance with law which they do not know, but with their unwritten customs. Such was the unpractical scheme of the unpractical camp. It was treated as a mere folly by practical people.
But happily enough there was by that time in Russia a good deal of unpracticalness in the air, and it was maintained by the unpracticalness of the peasants, who revolted with sticks against guns, and refused to submit, notwithstanding the massacres, and thus enforced the unpractical state of mind to such a degree as to permit the unpractical camp to force the Tsar to sign their scheme – still mutilated to some extent. The most practical people hastened to flee away from Russia, that they might not have their throats cut a few days after the promulgation of that unpractical scheme.
But everything went on quite smoothly, notwithstanding the many blunders still committed by practical people. These slaves who were reputed improvident, selfish brutes, and so on, displayed such good sense, such an organising capacity as to surpass the expectations of even the most unpractical Utopists; and in three years after the Emancipation the general physiognomy of the villages had completely changed. The slaves were becoming Men!
The Utopists won the battle. They proved that they were the really practical people, and that those who pretended to be practical were imbeciles. And the only regret expressed now by all who know the Russian peasantry is, that too many concessions were made to those practical imbeciles and narrow-minded egotists: that the advice of the left wing of the unpractical camp was not followed in full. "
I think that's a normal thing to say, however, by political theory I mean studying how different modes of production, feudalism, capitalism, socialism, work, what their proposals are, the philosophies that they base themselves on, or just the ideas and logic that they base their proposals on, their history, economics, and the hidtory of the world in general, to fact-check them,
Edit: Above I was going to ask why is political theory, propaganda, but I wanted to mention what I mean and what I think is usually meant by political theory in discussions about it, you can see that if you go to websites like the marxist internet archive, the anarchist library, or the mises institute, those are the three I am mainly using for economics, and the other things I mentioned, besides history,
I want to make a decision after I learn those things and talk to others about it, so that I can have the lowest chance of making a mistake,
[automerge]1730111813[/automerge]
I really like this writing about authority, and it's not long:
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-are-we-good-enough
[automerge]1730111905[/automerge]
"
About the same time a like quarrel raged in Russia, and its cause was this. There were in Russia 20 million serfs. For generations past they had been under the rule, or rather the birch-rod, of their owners. They were flogged for tilling their soil badly, flogged for want of cleanliness in their households, flogged for imperfect weaving of their cloth, flogged for not sooner marrying their boys and girls – flogged for everything. Slavishness, improvidence, were their reputed characteristics.
Now came the Utopists and asked nothing short of the following: Complete liberation of the serfs; immediate abolition of any obligation of the serf towards the lord. More than that: immediate abolition of the lord’s jurisdiction and his abandonment of all the affairs upon which he formerly judged, to peasants’ tribunals elected by the peasants and judging, not in accordance with law which they do not know, but with their unwritten customs. Such was the unpractical scheme of the unpractical camp. It was treated as a mere folly by practical people.
But happily enough there was by that time in Russia a good deal of unpracticalness in the air, and it was maintained by the unpracticalness of the peasants, who revolted with sticks against guns, and refused to submit, notwithstanding the massacres, and thus enforced the unpractical state of mind to such a degree as to permit the unpractical camp to force the Tsar to sign their scheme – still mutilated to some extent. The most practical people hastened to flee away from Russia, that they might not have their throats cut a few days after the promulgation of that unpractical scheme.
But everything went on quite smoothly, notwithstanding the many blunders still committed by practical people. These slaves who were reputed improvident, selfish brutes, and so on, displayed such good sense, such an organising capacity as to surpass the expectations of even the most unpractical Utopists; and in three years after the Emancipation the general physiognomy of the villages had completely changed. The slaves were becoming Men!
The Utopists won the battle. They proved that they were the really practical people, and that those who pretended to be practical were imbeciles. And the only regret expressed now by all who know the Russian peasantry is, that too many concessions were made to those practical imbeciles and narrow-minded egotists: that the advice of the left wing of the unpractical camp was not followed in full. "
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