Re: [Marxism] Mao Tse-Tung Mickey Mouse song (was: something or other about porn)

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I want to assure the comrades that I am abjectly sorry for the acts of lese
majeste I and others have committed against the holy name of Mao. I
guarantee that I will follow appropriate bowing and scraping rules at the
mention of the sacred words in the future. Avoiding anything that strikes a
negative tone toward Mao cultism will surely open the road to revolution
world-wide including in the United States.

I am sure that the proper etiquette of bowing and scraping before such
figures will surely open the road to world socialism, and overcome all our
sad failings as revolutionaries.

I think the Chinese revolution was one of the great events of world history,
and I give Mao full credit for his part in that. I also think he was totally
complicit in every problem that China faces today without exception. I do
not think that the Maoist politics of the Great Leap Forward and the Great
Proletarian Cultural revolution were steps forward for China or the world.
On the contrary, I think they were the indispensable preconditions for, and
not a lesser evil by comparison, to the problems that China faces today.
That is my opinion. I don't expect a lot of people on the list to agree with
it, and I don't propose to drag the list into a general debate around this
and recommend that others move on to debate more pressing questions -- one
of which, right now, is supporting unconditionally the revolutionary process
in Nepal regardless of various estimates of what may be the weaknesses of
the current leadership. 

I support the great national and anticapitalist in tendency revolution in
China 100 percent today as I did when I helped create the sin-stained
parodies, for which I offer no apologies and no promises not to repeat the
offense. And I have learned, in part the hard way, the danger of giving even
an inch to leadership demands, direct and indirect, for godhead status.

In general Louis has discouraged getting drawn into the more abstract or
historical discussions of Stalinism vs. Trotskyism or other forms of
anti-Stalinism or Maoism. I think this discussion emerging over making the
Mao cult a subject of ridicule or satire on the one hand, and the supposedly
unforgivable evil of doing so on the other is one of them, and I withdraw
from it completely now.

Everybody else can continue to release gases over my iconoclasm and that of
others who are prone to take the name of Mao in vain. It is clear they are
convinced that they are demonstrating their superior effectiveness as
revolutionaries.

I suspect Louis already sees the drift here into a classic Stalin-Trotsky
debate discussion, even though I stopped regarding myself as a Trotskyist
about 30 years ago. (The debate, even as a historical one, is actually
broader than that but certainly not capable of resolution even to a modest
degree in the framework of the Marxism list).  Those of us who reminisced
about the parodies of yesteryear made the unintentional error of opening the
door to a fruitless discussion.
Fred Feldman 



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