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I had to switch to an older translation of Socialism: Utopian and Scientific because the edition I was reading is bad. I couldn’t read a lot because of irl stuff, but I’ll have a lot of time after my leg surgery.

Utopia is a rather easy book to read and understand. One can learn about the historical socialist ideas in the book. It is also very sad to see we as a society didn’t change one bit—or we changed for worse.

War and Peace. Nearly finished, 40 pages left

I’ve just finished The Politics of Mass Violence in the Middle East by Laura Robson, which had for a main thesis the contribution of modern territorialialization in (surveilling and controlling subjects in unprecedently thorough ways) to the forms of violence that were witnessed in West Asia, and specifically in the Levant or Mashriq rehion, beginning with the Ottoman project of statehood, the oppressive colonial occupation by Britain and France, and ending with the emergence of postcolonial states that inherited the same violent practices of their colonizers. Much attention was given to the Zionist settler colonialism, the Iraqi repression of Kurds, Shia Arabs and communists, and in general to to all the practices of sectarian and ethnic division and imperialist intervention (be it economic or military) across the region.

The only caveat is that the author is liberal minded. She doesn’t differentiate between the different sources of violence without much nuance, specifically when she equates Soviet intervention to the imperialist intervention of the US or Britain or France; or when addressing the repression done by the Syrian Baathist regime against the merchant and landowning classes. The only exception was in the context of Israeli occupation, where she indirectly implied that nonviolent protests like the Intifada were unproductive against the terror of the Zionist war machine.

Finishing up Elementary Principles of Philosophy and then moving to Blackshirts and Reds

I’m reading The Sign of Four by Conan Doyle, Studies on Hysteria by Freud, and Heterotopias 008 (a magazine about architecture and video games).

Reading the pinned text, poverty of philosophy, and also going through Hadji Murad by Leo Tosltoy. Been going through his works, last one i read was Anna Karenina, he makes the imperial russia setting really come alive. Hadji Murad is a bit different focusing on the caucasus and the historical figure of said name.

A very interesting piece written by the Communist Party of my country regarding significant events during 1970-1975. Brilliant work clarifying a lot of things still visible today.

I just finished Resistance by Israel Gutman, the story of the Warsaw Uprising, and it fucked me uuuuup. Knowing that these people fought like crazy and lost is awful, knowing that hundreds of thousands were exterminated is awful, and knowing that a handful that survived turned around and did the Nakba is awful. Lots of feelings to sit with here.

I’m currently re-reading The Expanse after finishing Leviathan Falls late last year.

Book 4 of the New Jedi Order series (not the Disney shit mind you)

I also got a political book written by one of our directors so I’m giving it a try to see what’s in it