Read On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People(Mao Zedong) on ProleWiki
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Our general subject is the correct handling of contradictions among the people. For convenience, let us discuss it under twelve sub-headings. Although reference...

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  • winni.jo 🌱🐌☭
    9·
    24 days ago

    “Those who demand freedom and democracy in the abstract regard democracy as an end and not as a means. Democracy as such sometimes seems to be an end, but it is in fact only a means.”

    This is an important distinction. Democracy in the West suggests abstract means and is virtually aesthetic. If we have democracy for democracy’s sake, we have won, apparently, and apparently too, all contradictions can be resolved by “democracy”. I can see how abstract democratism can ignore the economic base, which brings a contradiction between the electorate and elected, who the electorate, in a position of class antagonism, cynically deploy the abstract, absolutist fetishization of democracy by giving the masses hopium in speech and presence yet in action do everything for their class interests and collaborators.

    • Malkhodr
      4·
      23 days ago

      I read this more than a year ago now and it’s still one of my favorite theory texts. The whole thing has many practical insights for how to approach Marxism but I think this portion about democracy (along with a section before or after about freedom of speech/press) is one of the most useful things I’ve learned from it.

      It really reshaped by prior thought process on the topic of democracy and how its venerated as a concrete practice in the west rather than a means to achieve an ends.