Review of We

Hmm thought I saw a Currently Reading thread in here before. Oh well. This book written by Yevgeny Zamyatin, a Marxist, after the Russian Revolution (1924) is an interesting view of Bolsheviks. It takes place thousands of years in the future, I think he was too pessimistic on the advancement of technology by that time, in the United State (confusing name) about to launch the Integral spaceship to logical man's burden other planets in the solar system, with the builder as the protagonist. He never actually says Marxist-Leninism but the way characters hold to the "immortal science" like it is a religion is a strong parallel, plus the book is political satire so kinda obvious. It gave a much better debate over individualism vs collectivism than 1984 did, which clearly used We as a template. And after reading Orwell's three main works, I don't think he is a good writer, I only liked Homage to Catalonia and that is more of a journal. The ending was chilling as well.

http://libcom.org/forums/general/suggested-reading-30122016

I'm not sure I understand what is meant by "collectivism vs. individualism" here. 1984 was primarily a work inspired by events in Russia and the authoritarian direction the government took there, no doubt also inspired by Orwell's time in Spain dealing with the Stalinist-Communists who undermined the social revolution that was underway there. I wouldn't call 1984 a work against "collectivism" in the sense of cooperating, collective ownership of the factories, social equality, etc., because Orwell had plenty of praise for all of those things which embodied the social revolution in Spain. 1984 was more like a work against authoritarian regimes and the absurdities that spring from such arrangements. It was definitely not a work against "socialism" as many on the right simplistically interpret it.

Ayn Rand also wrote a book entitled Anthem (which I read a long time ago) in which she lashes out at "collectivism" and concepts of equality, depicting a system where everyone is "we" and nobody "I"; the main protagonist is called "Equality 7-2521." (I'm guessing this is similar to the book you're talking about? I haven't read it.) Rand didn't share the same socialist beliefs as Orwell. I don't know what system Rand was trying to portray, but it certainly has nothing in common with libertarian communism, perhaps more so with so-called communist states. But works like these are no doubt invaluable weapons in the arsenal of the right and especially the right "libertarians" in discrediting ideas like socialism, which sadly many also think includes works by Orwell.

Eocentaur

I tried to find that thread but something was going on with the forum and when I tried to go to a previous page, it brought me to a menu instead.

I chose to understand the individualism vs collectivism as a different aspect in this case instead of a labour one. The collectivism of a statist society where conformity and loss of freedom is expected. Ayn Rand probably read "We" and interpreted it as being uniform for all forms of collectivism. If I did not see that the writer had written for Marxist magazines I could have construed it as anti-communist. I feel fairly certain he was just opposed to statism. At least in what Lenin created.

Um yes I know Orwell was Socialist and what 1984 was about. Opposed to We, 1984 had a warring world so that took form of nationalism.

Okay. As I said I haven't read We. I'm just skeptical whenever I see the word collectivism, because you had people like Rand who wrote against "collectivism," in the sense of a lack of freedom and conformity as depicted in Anthem, and applied that to socialism (like many do with Orwell's works.)

Yevgeny Zamyatin was not Marxist. He was close to the Free Philosophical Association (Volfila) is close to Pro-libertarian Party of the left SR. His idea of the fourth revolution is the idea of a Third anti-Bolshevik revolution, which was defended by a left SR and anarchists in Russia.