philosophy

I think this has a very straightforward answer.

If someone is in danger and you try to your fullest ability to save them but fail, does that mean that you should not have tried? Perhaps if you had adequate reason to judge it impossible and had something beneficial you could accomplish by turning your attention elsewhere. We do not have adequate reason to judge revolution impossible and we have nothing beneficial to accomplish except those things that could each be fairly characterized as "doing our part" for the revolution.

The only waste is in not doing our part.

Man's dearest possession is life. It is given to him but once, and he must live it so as to feel no torturing regrets for wasted years, never know the burning shame of a mean and petty past; so live that, dying, he might say: all my life, all my strength were given to the finest cause in all the world──the fight for the Liberation of Mankind.

― Nikolai Ostrovsky

I'm a Marxist for the same reason I'm a scientist. Of all the belief systems I've read into, it's the least-wrong thing I can find to understand my surroundings. If I found something less wrong I'd believe in it instead. What I can't justify is knowingly going back to believing in something more wrong. My life would be a waste of time if I spent it lying to myself and hiding my head in the sand. If revolution doesn't occur in my lifetime, most of the neat sci-fi tech won't either and I still try to be a happy Sisyphus studying the most rudimentary versions of those things because I know they're the best option for survival.

No. I read this book by an old communist who did all the work possible before, during and after our local civil war. She had been through imprisonment and the works. Kept study groups all the way to the age of 75.

She stated that even though revolution was not won in her lifetime she is content and assured that the work for a better tomorrow continues and will continue as long as it takes.

She said:

Sosialismi on niin suuri aate, ettei se toteudu minun elinaikanani, eikä lastenikaan. Mutta sen puolesta kannattaa tehdä työtä ja pienetkin saavutukset ovat tärkeitä.

Translation: Socialism is such a big ideology that it won't come to pass in my lifetime, or in the lifetime of my children. But it's worth working for. Even small acts count.

My take away from it is that this is a process and she understood that. Nobody knows how long it takes or how many times it fails or if it succeeds. If we read Marx though we know it is inevitable. Things are always in motion and will continue to be.

No. The world didn't end in the cold war despite the multiple times we were literally one man's actions away from extinguishing life on earth in nuclear hellfire. As long as humanity exists, so does the drive towards freedom. And in the yearning for liberation, the fertile soil it is, is always the seed of communism.

it's a waste of time regardless. might as well try to revolt.