Gordon, Maybe I am misunderstanding your question. It is ,of course, one of the problems is that of "vanguardism" but that term is not comprehensive enough...though I agree with you, one could argue that 'vanguardism', it could be argued, is the root of the other problems...lack of democracy, corruption, cynical power politics, dictatorship of Proleteriat, the State etc. So, maybe even if one could argue that it is the source of the problem, that it needs to be nuanced and broken up into its components.
Thomas
--- Gordon Fitch <gcf at panix.com> wrote:
> >> "Vanguardism" as
> >> a criticial notion leaves the most objectionable
> >> parts of Leninism out of the critique. Why be
> >> critical of vanguardism and accept far worse
> aspects
> >> of Leninism
>
> Thomas Seay:
> > Agreed! Once again, I had chosen the wrong
> > term...thanks for making it clearer. You're
> right...I
> > failed by first labelling it Stalinism, then just
> > vanguardism. The correct word would be to go to
> the
> > root and call it Leninism.
>
> What elements of Leninism do you see as outside of
> vanguardism, the party _Fuehrerprinzip_ so to speak?
> It seems to me to be the pervasive fault, whether it
>
> shows up in the Cheka or "state capitalism".
>
> -- Gordon
===== "The tradition of all the dead generations
weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living"
-Karl Marx
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