A little while ago Helen Razor's book Total Propaganda - Basic Marxist Brainwashing came up on NetGalley, and I said "yes please". For those of you who don't know, when I was at school Helen Razor used to host a breakfast show on JJJ. I was dating a guy who had the station as his alarm on his clock radio, remember them. I hated it. She was ranty - way too ranty for 7am! Anyway, since that far-off time Helen has been around in various parts of the media, and since I've got an interest in different, fairer, more just ways we could organise our economic system, I requested and received this book. I'm not sure why it is being re-released, quite a lot of the focus is from 4 years ago, with the American election and in Australia Kevin Rudd's apolology. It does not seem to have been updated.

Unsurprisingly, it's ranty, but that's one of it's strengths. It's main weakness is that of modern Marxism itself - it sees Marx as the answer and the only answer, when there may well be other ways to look at things. For example, we won't worry about gender inequity right now, because economic inequity is a larger problem and after the revolution we will have the leisure to sort it out, seems like a strange approach.

I will say though, that with the reading and learning I've done this winter, I've certainly reconsidered my position as a liberal. I used to think being a liberal was a good thing and it meant I cared about people. Now I realise we need to go much, much further. We need to redistribute wealth and seize the means of production. Fine fine. This book explains why we need the revolution, and why (in Helen's opinion) it must be a Marxist revolution. It doesn't actually explain how the revolution starts. This wasn't the goal of the book, but it's something I really want to know. Not what changes we need, but how do we do it.

I am completely surprised by how brilliant I found this!

It is for sure aimed at a younger audience than myself, but as someone totally new to Marxism it hit the right notes. It was engaging, informative and actually very funny. I liked how it contextualised some of the ideology against current politics and simplified the ideas without me as a reader feeling completely thick.

Funny, but not as funny as it claims to be. Clever, but not as clever as it claims to be. I enjoyed this book but felt the author edged towards trying to be sensationalist in order to get a reader response. Toning it down a bit would have worked just as well, and maybe been a bit less annoying, as it is a really interesting way to analyse and present philosophical concepts. Helen Razer writes well and brings a strong feminist perspective to the work.

I wish I'd read an excerpt of this before requesting it. I was actually really looking forward to it but unfortunately it is written for people a good 10 years younger than me and I had to give it up before the 2nd chapter.

Frankly, I don't know how I feel about this book...
Intellectually, I do appreciate bringing up and constructively criticizing the philosophy that was a base of a social regime for several countries over the time of the 20th century. On the other hand, knowing China's obsession and nowadays understanding of Marxism and social relations and regime... I mean this book gives a very good idea of financial systems, good read overall, but writing and overall emotional tone, I wish was more not politically correct, but less harsh...