“Universal Identity”

1. Explain the idea of the “self-made man” and how it relates to identity in America. What is the relationship of this idealized image to the technocratic empire that America became? How does this dialectic process unfold into reactionary, and then revolutionary, intercommunalism?
2. How does the concept of intercommunalism address the contradictions of the national question? How can some forms of nationalism be progressive while others are reactionary?
3. What role do you think personal identity plays in revolutionary processes? Would you consider how groups of people understand themselves to be part of the material conditions of a society, or a byproduct of those material conditions? How should we go about incorporating notions of identity into revolutionary strategy and tactics?
4. What does Newton mean when he says “a will to power is the primary drive of man”? How does this drive create human history via class society, and how does it also end history via revolutionary intercommunalism? How is this idea reflected through religion and science, and what are those examples meant to more broadly demonstrate? How is it significant to this broader conversation about the role of identity in revolution?
5. What is the significance of the conversation regarding family roles and political image through family roles? Why can there be “no real adults in a capitalist society”? If there is no qualitative difference between family and nation, as Newton suggests, what does the conception of political leaders have to do with the structure of the society they emerge from?