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graniteghost.bsky.social
A. Penguin
@graniteghost.bsky.social
21 followers 19 following 1.1K posts
Some days I prefer the mountains to the sea.
I'm going to be God's perfect Communist, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop me.
Warning: Subject matters covered in my fiction may include death and violence.
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graniteghost.bsky.social
Today's closest mirror to the Young-Hegelians as far as I can tell, a group Marx would balk at off the jump, are the Dark Enlightenment clowns prancing about the halls of government, business, finance, and tech.
Certainly it is an interesting event we are dealing with: the putrescence of the absolute spirit. When the last spark of its life had failed, the various components of this caput mortuum began to decompose, entered into new combinations and formed new substances. The industrialists of philosophy, who till then had lived on the exploitation of the absolute spirit, now seized upon the new combinations. Each with all possible zeal set about retailing his apportioned share. This naturally gave rise to competition, which, to start with, was carried on in moderately staid bourgeois fashion. Later when the German market was glutted, and the commodity in spite of all efforts found no response in the world market, the business was spoiled in the usual German manner by fabricated and fictitious production, deterioration in quality, adulteration of the raw materials, falsification of labels, fictitious purchases, bill-jobbing and a credit system devoid of any real basis. The competition turned into a bitter struggle, which is now being extolled and interpreted to us as a revolution of world significance, the begetter of the most prodigious results and achievements.
October 3, 2025 at 1:10 PM
graniteghost.bsky.social
". . .putrescence of the absolute spirit' ... "caput mortuum"
Karl Marx. The German Ideology. 1845 Part I: Feuerbach. Opposition of the Materialist and Idealist Outlook A. Idealism and Materialism The Illusions of German Ideology As we hear from German ideologists, Germany has in the last few years gone through an unparalleled revolution. The decomposition of the Hegelian philosophy, which began with Strauss, has developed into a universal ferment into which all the “powers of the past” are swept. In the general chaos mighty empires have arisen only to meet with immediate doom, heroes have emerged momentarily only to be hurled back into obscurity by bolder and stronger rivals. It was a revolution beside which the French Revolution was child’s play, a world struggle beside which the struggles of the Diadochi [successors of Alexander the Great] appear insignificant. Principles ousted one another, heroes of the mind overthrew each other with unheard-of rapidity, and in the three years 1842-45 more of the past was swept away in Germany than at other times in three centuries. All this is supposed to have taken place in the realm of pure thought. Continued from the first: Certainly it is an interesting event we are dealing with: the putrescence of the absolute spirit. When the last spark of its life had failed, the various components of this caput mortuum began to decompose, entered into new combinations and formed new substances. The industrialists of philosophy, who till then had lived on the exploitation of the absolute spirit, now seized upon the new combinations. Each with all possible zeal set about retailing his apportioned share. This naturally gave rise to competition, which, to start with, was carried on in moderately staid bourgeois fashion. Later when the German market was glutted, and the commodity in spite of all efforts found no response in the world market, the business was spoiled in the usual German manner by fabricated and fictitious production, deterioration in quality, adulteration of the raw materials, falsification of labels, fictitious purchases, bill-jobbing and a credit system devoid of any real basis. The competition turned into a bitter struggle, which is now being extolled and interpreted to us as a revolution of world significance, the begetter of the most prodigious results and achievements. If we wish to rate at its true value this philosophic charlatanry, which awakens even in the breast of the honest German citizen a glow of national pride, if we wish to bring out clearly the pettiness, the parochial narrowness of this whole Young-Hegelian movement and in particular the tragicomic contrast between the illusions of these heroes about their achievements and the actual achievements themselves, we must look at the whole spectacle from a standpoint beyond the frontiers of Germany.
October 3, 2025 at 1:08 PM
graniteghost.bsky.social
Yes, there are laws governing this universe that cannot be overcome with thought alone. For gravity, we have to understand the nature and functioning of gravity, and with that understanding we can engineer great feats to liberate ourselves from drowning in water here on Earth.
Once upon a time a valiant fellow had the idea that men were drowned in water only because they were possessed with the idea of gravity. If they were to knock this notion out of their heads, say by stating it to be a superstition, a religious concept, they would be sublimely proof against any danger from water. His whole life long he fought against the illusion of gravity, of whose harmful results all statistics brought him new and manifold evidence. This valiant fellow was the type of the new revolutionary philosophers in Germany.
October 3, 2025 at 1:05 PM
graniteghost.bsky.social
"--existing reality will collapse." From your lips to God's ears, Karl.

So many develop a conception of what they and others should be, what they and others need to be, all of which leads to the development of systems of living that perpetuate our headlong march towards oblivion.
Hitherto men have constantly made up for themselves false conceptions about themselves, about what they are and what they ought to be. They have arranged their relationships according to their ideas of God, of normal man, etc. The phantoms of their brains have got out of their hands. They, the creators, have bowed down before their creations. Let us liberate them from the chimeras, the ideas, dogmas, imaginary beings under the yoke of which they are pining away. Let us revolt against the rule of thoughts. Let us teach men, says one, to exchange these imaginations for thoughts which correspond to the essence of man; says the second, to take up a critical attitude to them; says the third, to knock them out of their heads; and -- existing reality will collapse.
October 3, 2025 at 1:04 PM
graniteghost.bsky.social
I'm a Barbie Girl

Time for me to attempt understanding of Idealism and Materialism.

I'm also going to try and relate Marx in The German Ideology to what's happening in the US today. I'm also also going to do my best to understand the contradictions inherent between Idealism and Materialism.
Karl Marx The German Ideology Preface Hitherto men have constantly made up for themselves false conceptions about themselves, about what they are and what they ought to be. They have arranged their relationships according to their ideas of God, of normal man, etc. The phantoms of their brains have got out of their hands. They, the creators, have bowed down before their creations. Let us liberate them from the chimeras, the ideas, dogmas, imaginary beings under the yoke of which they are pining away. Let us revolt against the rule of thoughts. Let us teach men, says one, to exchange these imaginations for thoughts which correspond to the essence of man; says the second, to take up a critical attitude to them; says the third, to knock them out of their heads; and -- existing reality will collapse. These innocent and childlike fancies are the kernel of the modern Young-Hegelian philosophy, which not only is received by the German public with horror and awe, but is announced by our philosophic heroes with the solemn consciousness of its cataclysmic dangerousness and criminal ruthlessness. The first volume of the present publication has the aim of uncloaking these sheep, who take themselves and are taken for wolves; of showing how their bleating merely imitates in a philosophic form the conceptions of the German middle class; how the boasting of these philosophic commentators only mirrors the wretchedness of the real conditions in Germany. It is its aim to debunk and discredit the philosophic struggle with the shadows of reality, which appeals to the dreamy and muddled German nation. Continued from first: Once upon a time a valiant fellow had the idea that men were drowned in water only because they were possessed with the idea of gravity. If they were to knock this notion out of their heads, say by stating it to be a superstition, a religious concept, they would be sublimely proof against any danger from water. His whole life long he fought against the illusion of gravity, of whose harmful results all statistics brought him new and manifold evidence. This valiant fellow was the type of the new revolutionary philosophers in Germany.
October 3, 2025 at 1:03 PM
graniteghost.bsky.social
Or you can quickly get out of town! You know. . .things happen, have your car nearby just in case.

Rent starts at a low $2950 a month! It's an absolute steal!
Photo from The Arches website showing the Park Avenue Bridge and Harlem with the following words: Minutes from midtown. Easy to get out of town. (Button to click for information on the location)
October 2, 2025 at 12:40 PM
graniteghost.bsky.social
THE BRONX IS BURNING!

WITH DEALS!

Come live in beautiful Mott Haven in the Bronx. Our luxury apartments here at The Arches are close to the subway and a quick ride to Midtown.
A "beautiful" artificially rendered view from a lovely luxury apartment in the South Bronx. Trendy living and dining set and top to bottom windows looking out onto a balcony and into the South Bronx.
October 2, 2025 at 12:33 PM
graniteghost.bsky.social
Gas lines are usually painted yellow, for those interested.
Gas line with regulating valve. Gas lines are usually painted yellow.
October 2, 2025 at 10:59 AM
graniteghost.bsky.social
An excellent artist (or artists) can hide a lot in the liminal spaces of their work. Take Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.
From Wikipedia: Dark Side of the Moon album cover. The design depicts a glass prism dispersing white light into colours and represents three elements: the band's stage lighting, the album lyrics, and Wright's request for a "simple and bold" design.[11] At Waters' suggestion, the spectrum of light continues through to the gatefold.[76] Added shortly afterwards, the gatefold design also includes a visual representation of the heartbeat sound used throughout the album, and the back of the album cover contains Thorgerson's suggestion of another prism recombining the spectrum of light, to make possible interesting layouts of the sleeve in record shops.[77] The light band emanating from the prism on the album cover has six colours, missing indigo, compared with the usual division of the visible spectrum into red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Inside the sleeve were two posters and two pyramid-themed stickers.
September 30, 2025 at 4:18 PM
graniteghost.bsky.social
Imagine a corporation, a capitalist entity, develops (or uncovers) a portal into the human collective soul. An infinite space for the corporate entity to be king, and it is sickly yellow, damp and oppressive. A nutshell the capitalist can only think to use as an office and storage.
From Wikipedia: The original Backrooms image posted on 4chan, of a HobbyTown under renovation. "If you're not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you'll end up in the Backrooms, where it's nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in. God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you." — Anonymous, 4chan (May 13, 2019)
September 30, 2025 at 4:16 PM
graniteghost.bsky.social
Remember Engels' definition of the proletariat. Engels brought a level of scientific thinking to his study of class relations, and I cannot say for sure based on my current knowledge, but I sense Engels felt gravitation at work in proletarian formation.
What is the proletariat? The proletariat is that class in society which lives entirely from the sale of its labor and does not draw profit from any kind of capital; whose weal and woe, whose life and death, whose sole existence depends on the demand for labor – hence, on the changing state of business, on the vagaries of unbridled competition. The proletariat, or the class of proletarians, is, in a word, the working class of the 19th century. Labor was more and more divided among the individual workers so that the worker who previously had done a complete piece of work now did only a part of that piece. This division of labor made it possible to produce things faster and cheaper. It reduced the activity of the individual worker to simple, endlessly repeated mechanical motions which could be performed not only as well but much better by a machine. In this way, all these industries fell, one after another, under the dominance of steam, machinery, and the factory system, just as spinning and weaving had already done. But at the same time, they also fell into the hands of big capitalists, and their workers were deprived of whatever independence remained to them. Gradually, not only genuine manufacture but also handicrafts came within the province of the factory system as big capitalists increasingly displaced the small master craftsmen by setting up huge workshops, which saved many expenses and permitted an elaborate division of labor. Continued on second picture. Continued from first: This is how it has come about that in civilized countries at the present time nearly all kinds of labor are performed in factories – and, in nearly all branches of work, handicrafts and manufacture have been superseded. This process has, to an ever greater degree, ruined the old middle class, especially the small handicraftsmen; it has entirely transformed the condition of the workers; and two new classes have been created which are gradually swallowing up all the others. These are: (i) The class of big capitalists, who, in all civilized countries, are already in almost exclusive possession of all the means of subsistence and of the instruments (machines, factories) and materials necessary for the production of the means of subsistence. This is the bourgeois class, or the bourgeoisie. (ii) The class of the wholly propertyless, who are obliged to sell their labor to the bourgeoisie in order to get, in exchange, the means of subsistence for their support. This is called the class of proletarians, or the proletariat.
September 29, 2025 at 5:45 PM
graniteghost.bsky.social
With Apologies

I think it pays to remember where people come from in order to give context to what they create, and in the case of the Principles of Communism, what they write.
Frederick Engels 1847 The Principles of Communism — 8 — In what way do proletarians differ from serfs? The serf possesses and uses an instrument of production, a piece of land, in exchange for which he gives up a part of his product or part of the services of his labor. The proletarian works with the instruments of production of another, for the account of this other, in exchange for a part of the product. The serf gives up, the proletarian receives. The serf has an assured existence, the proletarian has not. The serf is outside competition, the proletarian is in it. The serf liberates himself in one of three ways: either he runs away to the city and there becomes a handicraftsman; or, instead of products and services, he gives money to his lord and thereby becomes a free tenant; or he overthrows his feudal lord and himself becomes a property owner. In short, by one route or another, he gets into the owning class and enters into competition. The proletarian liberates himself by abolishing competition, private property, and all class differences.
September 29, 2025 at 5:42 PM
graniteghost.bsky.social
The formation and expansion of the proletariat is a problem for the ownership class. They did not want freed slaves joining the proletariat, that would be a riot.
The slave frees himself when, of all the relations of private property, he abolishes only the relation of slavery and thereby becomes a proletarian; the proletarian can free himself only by abolishing private property in general.
September 26, 2025 at 2:21 PM
graniteghost.bsky.social
I agree with Engels that the slave is outside of competition, but cooperation among slaves is called a rebellion.
The slave is outside competition; the proletarian is in it and experiences all its vagaries.
September 26, 2025 at 2:21 PM
graniteghost.bsky.social
Given Engel's description, why would a slave choose proletarianism over enslavement? Simply for a higher social status isn't enough in my mind.
The slave counts as a thing, not as a member of society. Thus, the slave can have a better existence than the proletarian, while the proletarian belongs to a higher stage of social development and, himself, stands on a higher social level than the slave.
September 26, 2025 at 2:14 PM
graniteghost.bsky.social
Slave owners turned to the lash when lack led to trouble among the slaves.
From Wikipedia: Peter, formerly enslaved on a cotton plantation along the Atchafalaya River, photo taken at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1863; after the whipping, Peter's wounds were salted, a common practice;[191][192] the overseer who whipped Peter was fired by slave owner Capt. John Lyons[193] (original carte de visite by McPherson & Oliver)
September 26, 2025 at 2:12 PM
graniteghost.bsky.social
It is true the slave is assured an existence in a top line sense, many of the horrors of slavery, particularly the chattel slavery practiced here in the US, stemmed from slave owners deliberately not providing even the least in basics for individual survival.
The individual slave, property of one master, is assured an existence, however miserable it may be, because of the master’s interest. The individual proletarian, property as it were of the entire bourgeois class which buys his labor only when someone has need of it, has no secure existence. This existence is assured only to the class as a whole.
September 26, 2025 at 2:09 PM
graniteghost.bsky.social
How to Maintain the Matrix?
Frederick Engels 1847 The Principles of Communism — 7 — In what way do proletarians differ from slaves? The slave is sold once and for all; the proletarian must sell himself daily and hourly. The individual slave, property of one master, is assured an existence, however miserable it may be, because of the master’s interest. The individual proletarian, property as it were of the entire bourgeois class which buys his labor only when someone has need of it, has no secure existence. This existence is assured only to the class as a whole. The slave is outside competition; the proletarian is in it and experiences all its vagaries. The slave counts as a thing, not as a member of society. Thus, the slave can have a better existence than the proletarian, while the proletarian belongs to a higher stage of social development and, himself, stands on a higher social level than the slave. The slave frees himself when, of all the relations of private property, he abolishes only the relation of slavery and thereby becomes a proletarian; the proletarian can free himself only by abolishing private property in general.
September 26, 2025 at 2:08 PM
graniteghost.bsky.social
We are governed by a fanatical religious death cult looking to bring about the end of the world all in order to escape their sins.
Trump Epstein statue with the two frolicking hand-in-hand on the National Mall in front of Congress
September 24, 2025 at 3:53 PM
graniteghost.bsky.social
. . .In for a pound.

"'Come and see!' And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."
During their visit, the lawmakers will tour the Gaza border communities alongside local youth and lone soldiers who immigrated from the US. Following their visit, they will plant 50 trees, one for each US state, in a Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund at Ofakim Park. State legislators in the US play a crucial role in shaping policies that often touch on issues related to Israel, from combating boycotts and antisemitism to advancing US-Israel relations.
September 24, 2025 at 3:50 PM
graniteghost.bsky.social
In for a penny. . .
Powerful example in fighting BDS, Sa'ar says Sa'ar told the delegation that each of them has the ability to set a personal and powerful example in fighting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement by turning it on its head. "Instead of boycotting Israel, promote engagement with Israel. Instead of divesting from Israel, promote investments in Israel. And instead of sanctioning the only Jewish state, speak out clearly against those who recycle age-old hatred in modern form."
September 24, 2025 at 3:48 PM
graniteghost.bsky.social
Google AI says the full, updated Delegation List is unavailable, and I'm inclined to believe it this time given my difficulty in finding the information. Sooner or later we will get the whole list of treasoners, but for now I'll content myself with reading a little slop.
Google search of nys representatives at 50 states 1 israel Applicable Results: An updated public list of all 250 U.S. state legislators who attended the recent "50 States, One Israel" delegation is not available. However, reports confirm that New York State Assemblyman Anil Beephan, a Republican, was an attendee.
September 24, 2025 at 3:42 PM
graniteghost.bsky.social
The Non-Commissioned Officers of the Ownership Class

It may be tough for them too right now, but the city-based petty bourgeois do still exist. The often propagandized small family owned business is the public face of the modern petty bourgeois.
Frederick Engels 1847 The Principles of Communism — 6 — What working classes were there before the industrial revolution? The working classes have always, according to the different stages of development of society, lived in different circumstances and had different relations to the owning and ruling classes. In antiquity, the workers were the slaves of the owners, just as they still are in many backward countries and even in the southern part of the United States. In the Middle Ages, they were the serfs of the land-owning nobility, as they still are in Hungary, Poland, and Russia. In the Middle Ages, and indeed right up to the industrial revolution, there were also journeymen in the cities who worked in the service of petty bourgeois masters. Gradually, as manufacture developed, these journeymen became manufacturing workers who were even then employed by larger capitalists.
September 23, 2025 at 3:11 PM
graniteghost.bsky.social
Maybe beauty does exist down in the bottom of every capitalist heart, but when a utopian manages to finally sit a capitalist down and presents a detailed, precise breakdown of the hell and oppression the capitalist's system engenders, they are likely to see the capitalist's reaction as thusly:
Elon Musk's Kubrick Stare.
September 22, 2025 at 10:45 AM
graniteghost.bsky.social
Utopian socialism is beautiful and appreciates beauty. It supposes beauty lies in the hearts of every single human being, thus the key to peaceful revolution can be found in appealing to the better angels of those in the capitalist class.
Continued from previous comment: People always have been the foolish victims of deception and self-deception in politics, and they always will be until they have learnt to seek out the interests of some class or other behind all moral, religious, political and social phrases, declarations and promises. Champions of reforms and improvements will always be fooled by the defenders of the old order until they realise that every old institution, how ever barbarous and rotten it may appear to be, is kept going by the forces of certain ruling classes. And there is only one way of smashing the resistance of those classes, and that is to find, in the very society which surrounds us, the forces which can—and, owing to their social position, must—constitute the power capable of sweeping away the old and creating the new, and to enlighten and organise those forces for the struggle. Marx’s philosophical materialism alone has shown the proletariat the way out of the spiritual slavery in which all oppressed classes have hitherto languished. Marx’s economic theory alone has explained the true position of the proletariat in the general system of capitalism. Independent organisations of the proletariat are multiplying all over the world, from America to Japan and from Sweden to South Africa. The proletariat is becoming enlightened and educated by waging its class struggle; it is ridding itself of the prejudices of bourgeois society; it is rallying its ranks ever more closely and is learning to gauge the measure of its successes; it is steeling its forces and is growing irresistibly.
September 22, 2025 at 10:44 AM