Manifesto for a Democratic Civilization, Volume I - Civilization: The Age of Masked Gods and Disguised Kings

Manifesto of the Democratic Civilization #1

by Abdullah Öcalan, David Graeber (Preface)

Considering the circumstances under which the book was written, I’d say the achievement here is quite impressive. Abdullah Öcalan seems to have done a better job writing with the extremely limited resources allowed him by his jailers than authors like Francis Fukuyama or Jared Diamond did with access to the world’s finest research libraries. —David Graeber A criticism that limits itself to capitalism is too superficial, Öcalan argues, and turns his eyes to the underlying structures of civilization. Rethinking the methods of understanding culture, politics, and society, he provides the tools for what he calls a sociology of freedom. The Age of Masked Gods and Disguised Kings is the first book in a new five-volume work called Manifesto for a Democratic Civilization. In this work, Abdullah Öcalan distills 35 years of revolutionary theory and praxis and 10 years of solitary confinement in Turkish prisons. These reflections represent the essence of his ideas on society, knowledge, and power.

Genres: Politics, Philosophy, Nonfiction, History, Anthropology, Sociology, Political Science

215 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2009

About the author

Abdullah Öcalan is the founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). From 1984, under his leadership, the PKK fought for Kurdish liberation. Since his kidnapping and arrest in 1999, he has been in solitary confinement in Imrali Island Prison.

Since his imprisonment, Ocalan has written extensively on Middle Eastern and Kurdish history. With his books he has significantly influenced the course of Kurdish politics in the last two decades.

He argues for the concepts of Democratic Autonomy and Democratic Confederalism that are considered an alternative to a Kurdish nation-state.

From 2009-2015, the Turkish state held negotiations with him about a solution of the Kurdish Question. Since the collapse of the talks in 2015, Öcalan has been under total isolation.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ocalan’s primary focus is explaining the ancient roots of the modern world, a world living under what he terms capitalist modernity. He begins with Sumer and Egypt, explaining how the ziggurat became the first mass collective, top-down labor system. This had considerable and lasting effects. It was a system not defined by tribalism but instead dynasties. It paved the way for true political power. It enslaved women, who had previously been the beneficiaries to a matrilineal system. It gave power to trade. It made religion a more unifying moral system for a nation-state—as opposed to a collection of beliefs that might vary from tribe to tribe.

Though there have been unique experiments—the Greco-Roman model with its emphasis on philosophy, the Abrahamic religions with their upending of the top-down structure, etc.—everything that has since existed was/is largely cut from the Neolithic cloth. Why have women remained subservient? Because for thousands of years now they have been treated as property for the advancement of a power system which put(s) hierarchy and order above the previously known, freer, and more spontaneous model of tribal living. This enslavement system suffered a defeat with Rome’s fall and Christianity and Islam’s ascendance. Though they provided ideological security, they were not suited for continuing the materialist advance under previous civilizations. This paved the way for capitalist modernity to take root in Europe.

Ocalan combines anthropology, sociology, and history for his conclusions. He isn’t afraid to muse on his favorite authors (Foucault, Nietzsche, Bookchin, Weber, and others), but it’s always with the purpose to explain how we have reached today.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

I shall let the author mostly speak for themselves. A few quotes put well together can explain what can be found in this book better than I could. The motivation for writing this book (the first in a series called "Manifesto for a Democratic Civilization") is: "I shall demonstrate that life itself is the most magical element there is. Therefore, our slogan should not be Socialism, not capitalism, but rather: Free life, not capitalism!". The main contribution to an analysis of modernity is the insight that it is it is not only capitalism that is wrong, but civilization itself:

"Systems based on coercion and the tyranny can only be successful if they have ideological hegemony. Thus, the main conflict is not only one of class division but also one at civilizational level. The historical struggle, that can be traced back to at least five thousand years, is essentially one between state-civilization and democratic civilization; the latter consisting of pre-state village and agricultural communities. All ideological, military, political and economic relationships, conflicts and struggles occur under these two main systems of civlization."


And it is precisely through this conflict between state-civilization and democratic civilization that the author analyses history and the results are rather fascinating, and it is precisely as David Graeber notes in the preface: "Abdullah Öcalan seems to have done a better job writing with the extremely limited resources allowed him by his jailers than authors like Francis Fukuyama or Jared Diamond did with the access to the world's finest research libraries."

Needless to say, this books is a metaphorical gold-mine (the values of state-civilization being evident in our colloquial language) for those who want to understand ancient history. Here we have a fresh perspective that is anything but the boring—and useless—analyses that we encounter in school. It is extremely terse, and as is mentioned in the preface, due to prison conditions citations are less prevalent than one might expect from such a work, but that is a challenge that the dedicated reader ought to overcome with a bit of effort.



While I do not completely follow the author's critique of positivism, I am extremely curios to follow the unfolding of the experimental "Sociology of Freedom" that should be developed by the author in the third book. At the time of writing of this review only the second book (with a focus on capitalism) has been translated into English.

I feel like I have to make one very important clarification. While the author engages a ruthless critique of civilization and capitalist modernity, by no means is he an advocate of primitivism. Rather, it is an attempt to analyse modernity through the lens of history so that we can learn where things went wrong:

"What is needed is an analysis of civilized society conducive to the kind of criticism that will enable us to progress beyond this civilization. A critique that focuses only on capitalist modernity will not lead to such progress, as is quite clear from the failed efforts of many schools, including the Marxists. The fundamental reason behind this failure is the fact that civilized society, which capitalist modernity is bound to, has not been included in the analyses. A Eurocentric philosophy of life seems to have silenced even the fiercest opponents. Just as in our analysis of the relationship between Neolithic culture and European civilization, there is a dire need for a comprehensible analysis of the relationship between European civilization and the previous civilizations in terms of history and society. The fact that I am convicted under the harshest possible suppression of this civilization justifies my attempt at such an interpretation despite its amateurishness."

[Camille · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, being a brief study of human civiization since the Neolithic, is dense and hampered by the fact that Öcalan had to write it while in prison on Imrali Island (where he remains to this day). His work blows Bookchin's Eurocentric oeuvre out of the water and moves far beyond with a specific focus on female liberation as the path to all liberation. While I have my reservations about some of the process in Rojava, I know they are operating with extreme constraints and their aim is ever true! I feel like all paths from this book lead to James C. Scott's Against The Grain which I hope to get my hands on soon!

[Redpoet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Abdullah Ocalan works are the most advanced thinking in the world today. In this, the first volume of what will be a monumental compilation, Ocalan goes beyond Marx and back, literally, to the beginning. I won't bother explaining, just read it.

[Katarina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting views on the origins of capitalism, civilization as a whole and an inovative analysis of it's underlying structures.

[Ameer Majeed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing this review, especially considering where I live, will be somewhat problematic. Nonetheless, I can not hold myself to express my thoughts and opinions on this book.

Ever since I was a child and I would see on TV any mention of Abdulla Ocalan, I imagined this man strictly as a political leader of a Kurdish liberation guerilla movement and nothing else.

This book proved me wrong!

His analysis of the development of civilization, his critic of scientific socialism and calling it a product of capitalist modernity, his meticulous storytelling, and his ability to correlate modern societal phenomena with human anthropology baffles me and even (not to seem very sensitive or anything) made me shed a tear or two. Never in my life as a Kurd have I seen a figure with his intellect. I see him competing with the likes of Marx, Foucault, Weber, and you name it...

I do not care what he did in the past, or what organizations affiliated to him have committed. What matters to me is that Ocalan, through this book, provided a fresh perspective to finding truth and the pursuit of a happy and free life outside of hegemony capitalism-modernity and without resorting to Marxist-Leninist doctrine.

5/5 book

[AppoX7 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very approachable and interesting book on democratic civilisation.

Ocalan's show-cases his break with Marxism clearer than I had expected. He makes the claim that Marxism is fundamentally part of and supportive of capitalist modernity, which I am inclined to agree with, scientific socialism, social democrats, liberals all further capitalist modernity. Also the collapse of the Eastern bloc had in some ways strengthened the left - the lack of the boogeyman.

Ocalan's analysis of the priest as the early administrator is very intriguing and evident. The approach to capitalist modernity, the dichotomy between ideological and material civilisation. The outline of human civilisation. The analysis is quite hard hitting yet very approachable and understandable.

Ocalan's break with Marxism can also be seen by him making his writing actually approachable to the masses, one could not understand das kapital off the shelf, but this? Yes and yet his analysis of civilization id make the wild claim is no less valuable than Das Kapital's analysis of 19th century capitalism.

[Scotty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ocalan builds on the thesis outlined in The Roots of Civilization, expanding on how the superstructure (ideology/religion) developed alongside class, focusing mainly on ancient civilizations and a bit on Feudalism.

It starts off slow with a bit of rambling and a poor critique of Positivism but after his excelent analysis of civilization follows.

[Dyl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really compelling read on the history of the world (materially and ideologically) has evolved up until the rise of capitalism. Extremely excited to continue reading the rest of his works.

[Qwertyu]

bhjmn

[Sean Peeters]

The English translations of the remaining books in this series are some of my most anticipated reads.