I have been ready Marxist theories since like 18 but it took a long time for me to accept AES. I was the kind of idealists who think “Marxist analysis is absolutely right, but AES is not real socialism because there is no direct workplace democracy”, so I was practically liberal/socdem/anarchist for a long time despite speaking a Marxist language and explaining Marxist critique to people. It really mattered a lot that I eventually went into reading the history of socialist practice, instead of just economic theories and the Eurocentric “critical theory”.
Capitalists love to tie people down with their endless economic theories and jargon. Marxism is so much more, its an entire world view and philosophy, and most capitalist economic theories still makes sense within Marxism, its just about how the state manages that economy, not how economies work.
Well basically when I was around that age I was first getting introduced into the history of the “century of humiliation” of China, which really fuelled my nationalist anger. I remember there were also a lot of Chinese right-nationalist posts on internet discussion board around the early 2000s, so I became fascinated by the idea of China retaking the centre of the world as it historically has been, and that it’s gonna unite the entire East Asian Confucian cultural sphere in its struggle against the West, etc. It was an ideology I formed exclusively through diving too deep into the internet as a middle school nerd. The rational foundation was weak. The version of pan-Asianism I had was almost just a mirror image of the Imperial Japanese version of pan-Asianism. So it no longer stuck around as long as I start reading some more serious stuff on politics. And the more serious stuff I happened to read about was liberal philosophy, because I was getting into Western philosophy in general.
Liberal philosophy on paper had a rational charm for a young nerd like I was because it was the first time I hear people makes arguments on values and social arrangement, instead of just appealing to tradition/authority/emotion. It was particularly “empowering” for me because I can now make arguments against many of the conservative, patriarchal school rules that I disliked. I helped me getting over with some of the misogynistic sentiment nurtured by the internet too. But it took a lot more years for me to turn my attention from “pure philosophy” and “abstract rational argument” to the historical practice of liberalism and made me recognise the hypocrisy of it.
Although I don’t necessarily think it’s quite materially possible, emotionally I would still like to see a pan-Asiatic alliance. But unlike the sino-imperialist version I had as a kid, the focus now would be about Global South struggle against Western imperialism as a part of achieving world revolution for the working class, rather than the triumph of Eastern culture over Western culture, or the triumph of the yellow race against the white race etc. I no longer believed in the “clashes of civilisation” or any other 19C bullshit about racial Darwinism.
I see, in your opinion. What do you think about Vietnam? Since it is part of the East cultural sphere despite located more in the South. Despite what you might think it is extremely similar to China, even the culture is similar. It do not have a South culture but an East culture instead? Do you consider Vietnam to be part of the East Asia? It also have Confucian teaching.
Chinese-nationalism/pan-Asianism (14-15yo) > Liberalism/Libertarianism (16-19yo) > Social democracy (20-23yo) > Anarcho-Communism (24-25yo) > Marxist-Leninism (26-31/now)
I have been ready Marxist theories since like 18 but it took a long time for me to accept AES. I was the kind of idealists who think “Marxist analysis is absolutely right, but AES is not real socialism because there is no direct workplace democracy”, so I was practically liberal/socdem/anarchist for a long time despite speaking a Marxist language and explaining Marxist critique to people. It really mattered a lot that I eventually went into reading the history of socialist practice, instead of just economic theories and the Eurocentric “critical theory”.
Capitalists love to tie people down with their endless economic theories and jargon. Marxism is so much more, its an entire world view and philosophy, and most capitalist economic theories still makes sense within Marxism, its just about how the state manages that economy, not how economies work.
Wait what happen that make you move from Pan-Asianism? Curious because I still have that ideology too.
Well basically when I was around that age I was first getting introduced into the history of the “century of humiliation” of China, which really fuelled my nationalist anger. I remember there were also a lot of Chinese right-nationalist posts on internet discussion board around the early 2000s, so I became fascinated by the idea of China retaking the centre of the world as it historically has been, and that it’s gonna unite the entire East Asian Confucian cultural sphere in its struggle against the West, etc. It was an ideology I formed exclusively through diving too deep into the internet as a middle school nerd. The rational foundation was weak. The version of pan-Asianism I had was almost just a mirror image of the Imperial Japanese version of pan-Asianism. So it no longer stuck around as long as I start reading some more serious stuff on politics. And the more serious stuff I happened to read about was liberal philosophy, because I was getting into Western philosophy in general.
Liberal philosophy on paper had a rational charm for a young nerd like I was because it was the first time I hear people makes arguments on values and social arrangement, instead of just appealing to tradition/authority/emotion. It was particularly “empowering” for me because I can now make arguments against many of the conservative, patriarchal school rules that I disliked. I helped me getting over with some of the misogynistic sentiment nurtured by the internet too. But it took a lot more years for me to turn my attention from “pure philosophy” and “abstract rational argument” to the historical practice of liberalism and made me recognise the hypocrisy of it.
Although I don’t necessarily think it’s quite materially possible, emotionally I would still like to see a pan-Asiatic alliance. But unlike the sino-imperialist version I had as a kid, the focus now would be about Global South struggle against Western imperialism as a part of achieving world revolution for the working class, rather than the triumph of Eastern culture over Western culture, or the triumph of the yellow race against the white race etc. I no longer believed in the “clashes of civilisation” or any other 19C bullshit about racial Darwinism.
I see, in your opinion. What do you think about Vietnam? Since it is part of the East cultural sphere despite located more in the South. Despite what you might think it is extremely similar to China, even the culture is similar. It do not have a South culture but an East culture instead? Do you consider Vietnam to be part of the East Asia? It also have Confucian teaching.