Issue 141
News: Review: This Godless Communism: Chapter 2.
When going through Chick Dissection, I went over the comments and discovered this comic about Communism (and the history thereof) from an old comic that was called This Godless Communism (as opposed to some other Godless Communism?). I'm not too into the history of the USSR that dominates Chapters 3-9, or the red scare-era propaganda dominating 1 and 10. However, I feel confident about my ability to dissect Chapter 2, focusing on the life of Marx. I must note that the writer doesn't get off to a good start with the sections on his early life. For instance, while he did end up changing colleges early on in his college career, he was not expelled from the first college, and probably not for the "strange ideas" that his father mentions. Later, the comic seems to put the blame on his thought (specifically religion) on his teacher G.W.F. Hegel. Specifically, the author blames Hegel for Marx's method on his abandonment of religion. Of course, his father himself was from a family rabbi who had converted from Judaism to Lutheranism, but never really took either religion seriously, leaning more towards deism. Also, Hegel, from what I could gleam from his writings, didn't seem too much like a materialist to me, and even had a large following among what we would now call "christian fundamentalists" in Germany, and the comic also fails to mention that his infatuation with Hegelianism ended fairly quickly. Surprisingly enough, after his spiritual "unawakening," he goes into a rant which is the closest thing that happens in the entire story to an explanation of what communism even is, and mentions that nobody has ever explained how eventually, under Marxist communism, the government would eventually cease to exist. Of course, perhaps it could be that when everybody is eventually happy under Marxism, there will be no need for a government because there would eventually be nothing for a government to do. Of course, it soon reverts to only talking about religious implications of Communism when they would have been talking about other aspects in real life. Finally, they talk about how he spent his final years working on "das kapital" failing to mention that he had been working on it on and off since he got the advance in 1844, and, from what I had heard, from my philosophy teacher, it was roughly 1/20th of what it was orignially planned to be by the time of his death. Well,even for a few-page-long religious tract in comic book form, it is still sort of accurate, even if it removes a lot of the things from his life which would eventually have it make any sort of sense in any sort of form, but for 1960, what do you expect?
Band Name of the Day: Well, even in the several weeks it has been since I posted, the best I can do is "THe Young Hegelians." This definitely seems like the sort of name that only works if you're a bunch of university philosophy professors uniting for a one-off gig for the university.
Film Idea of the Day: None.
Film Review of the Day: The Departed. It is quite easily one of the best movies about a non-Italian Mafia (although to be fair, it is probably one of the only movies about a non-Italian mafia I have ever seen). Even there, it is still a good movie, certainly quite deserving of all the honors and awards it had thrust upon it.
Quote of the Day: "We know God exists. We have too many proofs." (ed: and virtually all of them have been shown to be flawed in some way.)
_______________ Anonymous non-Hegelian in the comic.
Link of the Day: This Godless Communism. Read it for yourself.
When going through Chick Dissection, I went over the comments and discovered this comic about Communism (and the history thereof) from an old comic that was called This Godless Communism (as opposed to some other Godless Communism?). I'm not too into the history of the USSR that dominates Chapters 3-9, or the red scare-era propaganda dominating 1 and 10. However, I feel confident about my ability to dissect Chapter 2, focusing on the life of Marx. I must note that the writer doesn't get off to a good start with the sections on his early life. For instance, while he did end up changing colleges early on in his college career, he was not expelled from the first college, and probably not for the "strange ideas" that his father mentions. Later, the comic seems to put the blame on his thought (specifically religion) on his teacher G.W.F. Hegel. Specifically, the author blames Hegel for Marx's method on his abandonment of religion. Of course, his father himself was from a family rabbi who had converted from Judaism to Lutheranism, but never really took either religion seriously, leaning more towards deism. Also, Hegel, from what I could gleam from his writings, didn't seem too much like a materialist to me, and even had a large following among what we would now call "christian fundamentalists" in Germany, and the comic also fails to mention that his infatuation with Hegelianism ended fairly quickly. Surprisingly enough, after his spiritual "unawakening," he goes into a rant which is the closest thing that happens in the entire story to an explanation of what communism even is, and mentions that nobody has ever explained how eventually, under Marxist communism, the government would eventually cease to exist. Of course, perhaps it could be that when everybody is eventually happy under Marxism, there will be no need for a government because there would eventually be nothing for a government to do. Of course, it soon reverts to only talking about religious implications of Communism when they would have been talking about other aspects in real life. Finally, they talk about how he spent his final years working on "das kapital" failing to mention that he had been working on it on and off since he got the advance in 1844, and, from what I had heard, from my philosophy teacher, it was roughly 1/20th of what it was orignially planned to be by the time of his death. Well,even for a few-page-long religious tract in comic book form, it is still sort of accurate, even if it removes a lot of the things from his life which would eventually have it make any sort of sense in any sort of form, but for 1960, what do you expect?
Band Name of the Day: Well, even in the several weeks it has been since I posted, the best I can do is "THe Young Hegelians." This definitely seems like the sort of name that only works if you're a bunch of university philosophy professors uniting for a one-off gig for the university.
Film Idea of the Day: None.
Film Review of the Day: The Departed. It is quite easily one of the best movies about a non-Italian Mafia (although to be fair, it is probably one of the only movies about a non-Italian mafia I have ever seen). Even there, it is still a good movie, certainly quite deserving of all the honors and awards it had thrust upon it.
Quote of the Day: "We know God exists. We have too many proofs." (ed: and virtually all of them have been shown to be flawed in some way.)
_______________ Anonymous non-Hegelian in the comic.
Link of the Day: This Godless Communism. Read it for yourself.
Labels: Jack is Whack, Religious Right
posted by DerekAxe at 9:17 PM
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