Marxism Made Easy - Part 1: Historical Materialism

"History calls those men the greatest who have ennobled themselves by working for the common good; experience acclaims as happiest the man who has made the greatest number of people happy." - Karl Marx, Reflections of a Young Man (1835)

Have you ever given any thought to why people believe the things they do? Where ideas come from? Where ideas are located? This is a very old argument in the field of philosophy that addresses these questions, and it has very important consequences, as we will see.

You've probably heard opinions such as

"Ideas shape the course of history." - John Maynard Keynes

or

"You can kill a man, but you can't kill an idea." - Medgar Evars

These statements, if taken literally, embody a very old and common philosophical trend called idealism. This is the view that our ideas have a separate existence from our material world, and that these ideas are what actually shape us and our reality. Some idealists even go so far as to say that ideas are the only things that actually even exist, and material reality is either unknowable or entirely a matter of opinion.

This is a magical, unrealistic way of thinking. To believe in this sort of philosophy means ignoring what we actually experience, ignoring our knowledge of science in general and neurology, chemistry, and sociology, in particular.

In contrast to the idealists, Marxists believe that our ideas do not exist separately from us, and that knowledge comes not just directly and exclusively from our senses as the empiricists believed, but through our lived social experience, through our actual material conditions.  Marx said,

"It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness."

We receive data through our senses yes, but the form that data takes, the connections and sense we make of that data, is an ongoing process in our daily life, not just as isolated individuals but most importantly as productive social beings.

Our ideas, our worldviews, our philosophies and our culture, then, is rooted in our physically and socially determined situations. This is why the views of say rich bankers will be very very different from those of the homeless. This also explains why, typically, as someone's station in life changes, so also does their views.

Further, we inherit our situations in our lives from our parents, and along with that many of their views. We also receive many of our views from interacting with others who exist in a similar social situation as ourselves.

These physically and socially determined situations  that we live in are what Marx called our material conditions. He took this view of a humanity shaped by material conditions and applied it to human history. This application is what Marx calls Historical Materialism, the theory that history is shaped, not by ideas, but by material conditions.

And what is the primary, though not the only, determining factor of our material conditions?  How we relate to the means of production in our society. The means of production refers to the tools and materials we use to make society function, and the way we relate to the means of production is a question of power and control. Some members of society own the means of production, and others do not.

We call those who own and control the means of production the ruling class of our society. Those who neither own nor control these means are subject to those that do. All of human history is guided and defined by this struggle between the interests of the ruling classes and their subjects. The material forces of production shape the nature of the classes that struggle for control over them.

Armed with this clear, realistic understanding, history can be analyzed scientifically by examining the dominant mode of production in use within a society. One can even use this information to make accurate predictions about societal development.

So to summarize:

1. Ideas do not come from nowhere, they come from our material conditions.
2. Our material conditions are defined by the social situations in which we live.
3. Our social situations are determined mainly by how we relate to the means of production in our society.
4. All of history is governed by these principles and is defined by constant struggle for the control over the means of production.

Squid Hound

So for the adventure I ran last night (not part of my regular campaign) I came up with a nice n weird monstrosity called a squid hound.
Stats are based on a Becmi wolf.

AC = 7  HD = 2  Move = 180' (60') Attacks= 1 Bite  Damage=1d6  Save = F1
Morale= 6 or 10  Treasure= Nil  Int=2  Align=Neutral  XP = 25

The creation of a peculiar alchemist who decided to "improve"  his pet guard hyenas with aquatic qualities. The results have bulbuous eyes, a sharp beak in place of the snout, forelegs lined with suckers, and shell like protrusions forming a ridge down the back.
The creatures live in an abandoned fountain where they have laid eggs. Normally they are wary of humans and likely to squirt squid ink in their attacker's eyes from their mouth or anus before fleeing. (Failed save results in temporary blindness.)
They will become aggressive when defending their eggs.

Obligatory Welcome Post

So welcome to Dungeons and Dialectics. If you haven't figured it out already this blog is going to be all about my two favorite things: Marxism-Leninism and Dungeons & Dragons.  So you'll see posts about both subjects, and of course some about the intersection between the two.

What got me to start this blog was twin needs. I wanted a place to compile my Marxist writings and analysis in one place. I normally contribute articles to the Refuse to Cooperate blog, but my articles can easily get lost in the mix there and what happens if that site goes down? All gone. Good idea to have a backup.

At the same time I am a pretty avid D&D DM  (started playing with 3.5, dabbled in WoD, and have played a bit of 5e as well) and am now running an OSR style campaign of my very own, which means a lot of world building, house ruling, and basically a lot of stuff I want to share, its a way to give back after having read so many blogs in the OSR community and getting tons of great ideas from them.

So why combine these seemingly unrelated things? Well because they aren't necessarily separate at all.  Anything we humans do can be subject to Marxist analysis and roleplaying games are no exception. At the same time we can use roleplaying to explore social dynamics and even use it to teach Marxism and give people a greater understanding of themselves and society and of course motivate them toward change.

I can already hear the possible objections. "Keep politics out of my game!"  Ahem,

1. politics has been in this game since the beginning.

2. all media reflects the class values of its creators, and either challenges or affirms one or more of their class interests. and yes even something like a desire for escapism exists within a class context.

And I am sure there will be no shortage of standard reactionary rhetoric about political correctness, the evils of communism, blah blah blah, I won't waste my time with that stuff.

That's enough for now I think, if you'll excuse me I have a half hyena half squid creature to go work on...