Hi everyone! Once again it’s time for a blog anniversary post. This marks four years of the blog I started on June 1, 2018. It’s been fun!
Read on for a recap of the last year and some thoughts on next steps.
Category: Blogging (Page 3 of 7)
These are posts on blogging from the blog Base and Superstructure. Mostly these are meta-blogging posts, where I’ll be writing a bit about what it’s like to run a blog.
So, I spent last weekend visiting my parents in Indiana. I often take a trip back to Indiana sometime in the spring or summer. But we had a special occasion for this one: my mom’s 65th birthday and retirement! I had a enjoyable visit, and posts should be back on the more regular schedule in coming days and weeks.
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So, the US saw an attempted coup in 2021. Among other things. And yet, I don’t think I can claim 2021 was weirder than 2020. If anything, it came off as less weird.
Go figure. I guess readers can check out my recaps from 2020, 2019, and 2018 to run a comparison.
Let’s take a look at some of the things happening in the Base and Superstructure world this year. And celebrate, perhaps, the coming of even better things in 2022?
Hello, readers!
I’m taking a vacation from work from today through the end of the year. I think I’ll take a bit of time to rest and recharge. And a bit of traveling back to southern Indiana to visit family.
Along with this, you’ll probably notice a bit of a longer gap than usual between posts. I’ll have a post up at the end of the year, but likely not much between now and then. I expect to return to my regular schedule in January!
So, occasionally people ask me about the blog’s name (Base and Superstructure). Sometimes they’re just curious. At other times, they know a bit about Marxism and think the name might indicate that I’m some kind of ‘class reductionist‘ (by which they might mean any number of things).
I’ve written about this topic a number of times. Including the very first post back in 2018. In fact, it’s a frequent topic I return to from a variety of angles. But I’d also like to write a short version of a more complicated set of ideas.
Here’s the short version: The term ‘class‘ refers to relationships among different groups of people. These relationships concern which groups own and control economic resources. When trying to best explain society, class relations form the most fundamental explanatory unit. Other things, like religion, culture, identity, and so on, are an important part of our lives and an important social force. They’re also important to our efforts to create and maintain socialist movements. But class is typically where the buck stops.
That’s what the blog name means to me. And while it might make me a ‘class reductionist’ in some narrow explanatory sense, I certainly think there are things other than class that are very important to politics and movements.
