This month MLM Mayhem has finally broken one million page views. And though I have been posting less due to the time absorbed by childcare––thus guaranteeing that I have less traffic––I am still glad to have become a blogger "millionaire". Indeed, I am under the delusion that over a million page-views means that there are over a million votes for communism!
In any case, based on this rite of passage, I want to ask those faithful readers who have contributed to the one million count for direction. That is, because my lack of sleep and time tend to render me incapable of thinking of post topics, I am opportunistically using this event to solicit ideas for future posts. Really, my brain isn't working properly these days so please reply with creative input––no promises that I will actually follow-up on all your input (I'm ignorant in so many areas, and disinterested in so many others), but at the very least it will encourage me to write more. Oh, and if you just want me to stop writing altogether because you hate my guts and think, as one recent commenter put it, that I am a "weasel" and a "half-assed blogger", then feel free to buy my silence by donating all of the trust fund you so clearly possess.
Several years ago, when I first started this blog, I was under the impression that I would never have readers. Hence the reason, as I've explained before, for my revealing URL and the shitty original posts that were mainly rants about Nietzsche and grumpity comics. Hence the reason for a poorly thought-out blog name to which I am now, sadly, I am committed. Point being: I never thought anyone would read this shit, let alone contribute to a viewer count that superseded one million, and so I am somewhat humbled. (Humbled enough to forego asking again, with feigned irony, for more monetary contributions? Hell no: I have a child to feed.) So thanks to all of you who made the one million statistic possible, thanks to those who have helped this blog's audience grow in the past few years, and a big thanks to those who have donated because they believed the blog was worthy of donation.
What is most humbling, and indeed inspiring, about this unexpected blog experience is the fact that I have encountered comrades––sometimes even in person––who have found my contributions helpful. To meet people who claim that I have helped them think through problems (even if they disagree with my proposed solutions), encouraged them in concrete practice, or been in any way helpful to revolutionary action is a compliment I don't deserve. Similarly, what I have found beneficial about this blog are many of the insightful comments and discussions that have also allowed me to develop as a thinker.
So let me know what sort of articles/rants/essays you want to see on MLM Mayhem in the future. Again, I can't promise that I will be able to address every suggestion, but you might provide me with some direction.
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| 1,000,000 pixels doesn't actually look all that impressive in grid form. |
In any case, based on this rite of passage, I want to ask those faithful readers who have contributed to the one million count for direction. That is, because my lack of sleep and time tend to render me incapable of thinking of post topics, I am opportunistically using this event to solicit ideas for future posts. Really, my brain isn't working properly these days so please reply with creative input––no promises that I will actually follow-up on all your input (I'm ignorant in so many areas, and disinterested in so many others), but at the very least it will encourage me to write more. Oh, and if you just want me to stop writing altogether because you hate my guts and think, as one recent commenter put it, that I am a "weasel" and a "half-assed blogger", then feel free to buy my silence by donating all of the trust fund you so clearly possess.
Several years ago, when I first started this blog, I was under the impression that I would never have readers. Hence the reason, as I've explained before, for my revealing URL and the shitty original posts that were mainly rants about Nietzsche and grumpity comics. Hence the reason for a poorly thought-out blog name to which I am now, sadly, I am committed. Point being: I never thought anyone would read this shit, let alone contribute to a viewer count that superseded one million, and so I am somewhat humbled. (Humbled enough to forego asking again, with feigned irony, for more monetary contributions? Hell no: I have a child to feed.) So thanks to all of you who made the one million statistic possible, thanks to those who have helped this blog's audience grow in the past few years, and a big thanks to those who have donated because they believed the blog was worthy of donation.
What is most humbling, and indeed inspiring, about this unexpected blog experience is the fact that I have encountered comrades––sometimes even in person––who have found my contributions helpful. To meet people who claim that I have helped them think through problems (even if they disagree with my proposed solutions), encouraged them in concrete practice, or been in any way helpful to revolutionary action is a compliment I don't deserve. Similarly, what I have found beneficial about this blog are many of the insightful comments and discussions that have also allowed me to develop as a thinker.
So let me know what sort of articles/rants/essays you want to see on MLM Mayhem in the future. Again, I can't promise that I will be able to address every suggestion, but you might provide me with some direction.
Esthetics is a branch of philosophy that is rarely popularized. It is also considered a marginal subject by many activists and sympathizers. Political implications in most modern criticism seems to be lost in a swamp of theoretical confusion, if it is even available to non-academics. Perhaps you would find technical training in philosophy, political commitment and recreational interests happily combined in posts that aim a little higher than Roger Ebert or Alan Sepinwall?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I can't see the grid very well, but there seem to be 10 000 squares in a 100X100 grid?
I have made these kinds of posts before but not in a long time. Over a year ago I began another blog with my partner (who is an artist and curator) that was meant to be precisely what you've suggested, but it's been defunct for a while––perhaps I shall revive it. But if you are interested in what has been posted there you can check it out at
Delete(The grid is 1,000,000 pixels: each square possesses 100 pixels that provide it with the colour, hence it is 100x100x100.)
I noticed that you responded to this and even though I hit "publish", for some reason blogger has dropped the reply. Part of it, I assume, has to do with the missing URL that blogger also dropped (because it was a wordpress address?)... So I'll try to post that URL again:
Deletewww.achillespowderlead.wordpress.com
Hey, this is "Mulciber". I decided to use a handle that included most of my actual name, since I honestly hadn't read the post with your suggested rules before I started commenting on the site.
ReplyDeleteIf there's one thing you could put on your blog that would make me pleased as punch, it would be a discussion about how the various kinds of Marxists can get past their hair-splitting theoretical differences and unite based on common interests. We have so much in common, and yet it continually frustrates me how people who agree on so many major points devolve into heated sectarian battles over this or that historical concern that means approximately jack shit to the bulk of the population.
My interest is in overthrowing capitalism and establishing a socialist system, not in endlessly debating sectarian talking points. Over the past year, I feel like I've learned so much from reading your blog. While still a self-proclaimed Trot, I have definite Maoist sympathies at this point - but wish we could get past such labels altogether and fully realize our common concerns.
I know we'll still have many differences on strategy and tactics, but frankly, all I'm looking for are the CORRECT strategy and tactics. May the best ideas win. :-)
Great to hear from you again. Sorry about how long it took me to reply to this comment but, for some reason, blogger wasn't allowing me to respond to comments due to one of its many and frequent bugs.
DeleteThis is a good idea and I have addressed it before, but in a tangental manner, when I've spoken about how to work in coalitions, how revolutionary strategy should function, etc. It definitely is worth addressing directly: I'll put this on a list of possible blog topics for the future.
Also, I don't mind if people use aliases... My comment guidelines are just avoiding the handle of "Anonymous", meaning not even creating a fake name, not about outing your real identity. Most of this is because posting in a completely anon manner tends to produce more trolling and leave one unaccountable for replying since there is no way of knowing if this anon poster is the same as another anon poster, etc. I am completely okay, and in fact encourage, people to stay anonymous but with creative pseudonyms.
DeleteApologies to those commenters whose comments were dropped. I did choose to allow them through but it seems that blogger has prevented them from appearing for some reason. There was one about Lefebvre but I cannot recall what it was asking specifically...
ReplyDeleteRegarding Lefebvre, I was just wondering how come you have not written anything that included him. I believe he made incredible contributions to philosophy and to marxism and would like to hear your take on him. I also arrived to his work by means of studying maoism and my profession as an architect, finding his writings on space and anti-revision dialectics to be valuable in understanding both. Lastly, most of the writings I've come across from north America seem to come from Toronto, so any insight would be much appreciated. He seems like an important forgotten Marxist to be revived in the English speaking world and other languages....
ReplyDeleteThanks for reposting the dropped comment… My area of expertise is not Lefebvre; the last time I read him was in my MA (so a decade ago) when I wasn't a maoist, and so understood him according to a different theoretical lens. I'll have to look at him again.
DeleteYou know a lot about stuff that that's really off the beaten path. I think it would be nice if you could popularize some stuff that doesn't appear on every "communism101" reading list.
ReplyDeleteAlso there are a lot of words and concepts that people seem to think they understand, but they really don't understand them, nor the trajectory of their development. This seems like a nominally philosoph-friendly undertaking. Fun?
While on the topic: what's your most read article?
ReplyDelete"Whose Speech and For Whom?"
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