- cross-posted to:
- genzedong@lemmygrad.ml
- cross-posted to:
- genzedong@lemmygrad.ml
Some foreigners say that our ideological reform is brainwashing. As I see it, they are correct in what they say. It is washing brains, that’s what it is! This brain of mine was washed to become what it is. After joining the revolution, it was slowly washed, washed for several decades.
What I received before was all bourgeois education, and even some feudal education.
- Mao Zedong
@dessalines
I always viewed “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics” as a necessary economic compromise that had to be made to prevent the Chinese Communist Party from losing power, similar to the NEP in 1920s Russia, so that eventually China could continue on the road to pure socialism. Is that accurate?
Its a bit tough to answer that question, because it assumes that there’s such a thing as “pure socialism”, and that any deviation from that is a betrayal, compromise, or revision to what socialism is. We should view socialism not as a dogmatic religious text that can never be changed, but as a science, which can grow, adapt, change, and we can build upon through experience and experimentation. What works and uplifts people should be our measuring stick, not dogmatic adherence to texts.
You’re right that SWCC could be considered similar to the NEP, in their acceptance of markets and allowing private capital to exist in a limited form under the thumb of a socialist government. But most modern socialists don’t view market socialism as a “betrayal” or “revisionist”; Socialist countries like Vietnam, Cuba, DPRK, and the PRC, have all learned through experience and adopted different flavors of socialist market economies, while still being run by communist parties, who try to remain flexible in their approach to solving their specific country’s problems, and always making sure that private economic power can’t rise above political power.
SWCC was formulated as a set of ideas, strategies, tactics, and after the overthrow of the gang of four in the late 1970s, learning from the lessons of the ultraleft turn of the cultural revolution. Most other countries don’t have that experience, and weren’t able to learn those lessons. SWCC also underwent a lot of changes after the overthrow of the eastern bloc, trying to not repeat the same mistakes the USSR made (a great topic, but too long to go into here).
The best longer book I’ve read (only about 70% done now) which goes over all the thinking and strategies behind SWCC, is Jin Huiming - Marxism and Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, but here are some good introductory articles that go over SWCC:
@dessalines
I just read "Isn’t China revisionist for having a capitalist sector of the economy, and working with capitalists? Why isn’t it fully planned like the USSR was? ", and it made so much sense. Thanks for sharing. I’m going to read the rest soon.
No probs!