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

[Tom Cod <tcod@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

surely it had to do with material forces and not Mao's misapplication or 
misunderstanding of abstruse philosphical doctrines.  Moreover, I'm not sure 
which of Mao's works you are talking about, but thing is certain, discussing 
how he misapplied this philosophical precept or that is useless unless 
correlated with concrete examples.    It's been awhile, but I think Mao's Hunan 
talks elucidate his approach, basically that of the Popular Front.  In other 
words, he proceeded from concrete reality.  Maybe you can cite to me some 
source for this supposed central theme of Maoist revolutionary activity. Now, 
TD Lysenko did purport to operate on that basis, but we now know he was a 
charlatan.

The material forces and circumstances were different in the two situations, 
that's the reason.  To borrow a phrase from John Stuart Mill, just as the soil, 
water and other conditions determine how plants thrive or not in different 
contexts, so too with human beings and societies.  Moreover, I seriously doubt 
the decision making process the leaders of those revolutions went through 
started from ethereal epistemological and philosophical precepts except by 
intellectuals who might be trying to obscure that for some reasons, in fact any 
reasonable person would view such an assertion as ridiculous.  Serious 
political operators don't think like that, if they did they'd be sucker-punched 
in short order and that's one reason why people who do are invariably on the 
sidelines at best.  The role of activists operating in the people's interests 
is to DE-MYSTIFY and make plain stuff like that, not to do the "opposite".


> On another note,  I think your depiction of Mao as a "hard-nosed," 
> "bare-knuckled," "down to earth guy,"  really misses the point since, first 
> of all, the abstract idealistic bullshit you find so offensive comes from 
> Mao himself [and is in fact one of the central themes of Maoist 
> "revolutionary" activity],  and misses the point-- the point being what 
> exactly the Chinese revolution achieved, how it achieved it, and why that 
> revolution was reversed in half the time it took to defeat the October 
> revolution.
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Tom Cod" <tcod@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <sartesian@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Saturday, May 16, 2009 11:55 AM


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