What's Left of Philosophy 129 TEASER | The General Strike and Socialism: Sorel's Reflections on Violence
Feb 16, 2026
They explore Sorel’s claim that socialism lives in the idea of the general strike rather than its precise form. Discussion centers on political myth, its power to mobilize, and risks of irrationalism and misuse by reactionary movements. They contrast violent, transformative strikes with routine political strikes and examine historical strike coordination and traditions.
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Strikes Reveal Elite Falsehoods
- Repeated small victories teach workers that elites lie about scarcity and possibility.
- That experience seeds a critical class consciousness pointing toward the general strike.
Organized Strikes Don't Equal Radicalization
- Lillian cautions that strike experience rarely produces Marxism by itself.
- Union routinization can deliver material gains without fostering revolutionary consciousness.
Myth Needs A Political Ecosystem
- Owen argues the general strike's myth must be embedded in broader political culture.
- Without preconditions and other organizing, a strike's spectacle becomes routinized and ineffective.
