WHY STUDY?
Dedicating oneself to changing society — to creating a world where we cannot just survive but flourish; and not just ourselves but everyone and not just for our generation, but also for future generations – is the most profound task anyone could undertake. Such a serious undertaking demands that we take it seriously. How can we be the best, the most skilled revolutionaries that we can be? To change society, one must understand how societies develop and change – how history works. As with any other serious undertaking, this requires study, reflection, discussion and practice. There are no shortcuts to being a skilled revolutionary. It’s not enough to be out in the streets fighting for change. Revolutionaries must have a clear sense of how societies develop, how revolutions happen, what stages revolutions proceed through, what stage the process is in at the moment. Skilled revolutionaries see farther because they know the steps, the stages, and the process. Skilled revolutionaries see the road that the revolutionary movement must take to succeed – the line of march.
These skills come from study. Knowledge is the result not just of interacting with the world, but also of reflecting on that interaction. Knowledge requires structure or framework through which to understand experiences, and a method for analyzing and understanding events around us. By studying the accumulated experience and thinking of others who have gone before us, we can become experts that much faster. A regular study program, then, must be an essential component of any revolutionary’s life. No one ever knows it all. Plus new experiences and new discoveries and new developments require us to constantly reflect on the new information and its meaning. Regular study is key to keeping that line of march in view. Study groups have been a key part of every successful revolutionary movement.
The core leadership of these movements developed out of study groups. Today, as before, a network of revolutionaries who approach the line of march from the perspective of science – a info@scienceofsociety.org | Institute for the Study of the Science of Society 6 network of Marxists – is essential to guaranteeing that both the present and the future struggles stay on track towards the ultimate goal. The starting point for building this network is building study group
