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1. Easily the best essay by Lenin (the best buy Mangles is 18th Brumeire).Lenin, influenced by old school political economy like Marx and Hobbes, does not have the religious view of the state that republicans and progressives developed (it’s us coming together, social contract enforcer, etc.) and bar some class reductionist language and bad economics here and there Lenin says little about the state that libertarian leaning people wouldn’t agree with. Lenin has more or less the same view of government that Machiavelli, George Washington and Hobbes had, that it’s a necessary tool but it’s basically an instrument to beat and kill people.

   The modern religious, Hegelian view of the state as the realization of reason and the footsteps of God* is such utter nonsense that people don’t even know how to think about political power correctly, whether they support it or not. Republican grifters often rant on about Marxism being taught in schools, to which I can only say, ‘I wish, it’s actually much worse. ”

   *This is somewhat inaccurate regarding Hegel himself, who didn’t quite mean what our of context quotes make him sound like. Hegel was a very bad philosopher but he wasn’t a total buffoon. Most of his followers, however, were film buffoons°and read him to mean exactly what people believe he meant.

   °Except Saint Max.

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