Comparing Mao to Hitler

Max Sawicky sawicky at epinet.org
Tue Jun 8 12:37:53 PDT 1999



> Re:
> >
> >These specific misrepresentations by Max were expressed
> >in his exchange with Brad D. mocking Maoist thought as
> >basically dumber than Delongist or Sawickian thought or
> >other western economist thought. The comedic exchange
> >sought to continue the general bourgeois and western
> >stereotype of communist and eastern thought as lacking
> >critical capacity and sort of mindless brainwashed
> >utterances. The underlying implication is of course
> >that bourgeois and western thought is superior in these ways.
> >
> >Charles Brown
>
>
> Max--
>
> Is it that Mr. Brown does not know that my praise of "Max
Sawicky thought" was Lin Biao's--the fair-haired boy of the Cultural Revolution, Mao's losest comrade-in-arms and designated successor (until that unfortunate accident with those shoulder-launched rockets at the dinner party)--introduction to _Quotations from Chairman Mao_ (with "Max Sawicky" substituted for "Mao Zedong")? . . . >

I'm glad you asked that question. Indeed nobody has recognized that your parody was lifted directly from the sacred texts. I had a feeling because it was too long to have absorbed that much of your time, and it was too perfect. I can't say I recalled the text, since I did read it a long time ago. By contrast, our erstwhile revolutionary colleagues took the manifest stupidity of the language as a slur on their heroes and their races.


> How can anyone who has ever read the preface to _Quotations
from Chairman Mao_ deny that Maoist thought is characterized by a lack of critical capacity? How can anyone deny that Maoist thought is characterized by mindless brainwashed utterances? >

For some it comes from an idea of mass revolutionary consciousness as sheep-like behavior. The economic crisis hits, people face destitution, they get religion, they follow the Party. This sort of petit-bourgeois fantasy is buttressed by a lack of experience engaging actual working people in organizing. Said lack of experience gives rise to or is associated with low estimation of the intelligence of workers, hence the felt need to speak in baby-talk. In other words, it is fundamentally patronizing or, to employ some lingo, "classist." It may be recalled that Liu spoke approvingly of the practice of "brainwashing (but without the derogatory connotation)" (sic).

The other unreality about this discussion is the contrast between the assertiveness of our purported Maoists, and the manifest lack of any organizational affiliation that would logically be the vehicle for their politics. Communists without a party are like the old joke about consultants -- they know a hundred sexual positions, but they've never had a date.

mbs



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