“Read theory.”
We say this all the time. It’s basically an expression, isn’t it? It can be advise, bragging, scorn, mockery. It’s all become a bit ephemeral.
That’s not to say that people shouldn’t read theory. Without revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary movement. Even so, isn’t it a bit silly to suggest, even implicitly, that being a Marxist or communist boils down to a familiarity with the source material? If that’s not book worship, I don’t know what is.
I understand that this is, on some level, an accusation. I am suggesting that many of our communities are caught up in a somewhat liberal, idealist mindset. We all have an ideology, a set of opinions about the world which we express and propagate at the expense of our competitors. Can we seriously deny this is what we are doing?
If Marxism-Leninism is a science, there must be some technical aspect. What are we supposed to do in the world? How do we do it? And how do we know if it’s working?
The whole point of Marxism-Leninism is not to ‘make’ a revolution, but to prepare the conditions for revolution. We shouldn’t expect everyone to read theory, theory is just for the vanguard. But Marxists-Leninists should focus on improving mass consciousness before anything else. Every action should be subordinated to this particular task. An organization should exist solely for that purpose, until the task is achieved
I think “prepare” isn’t the right word here. Capitalism creates or “prepares” the material conditions for revolution. ML theory is a philosophical methodology to help you analyze your country’s and community’s specific material conditions and adapting you’re revolutionary praxis to those conditions. Each revolution will be colored by its specific material conditions and without a systematic approach you might miss the path forward. We do not set the conditions for revolution. We identify those conditions, through application of theory, and use that information to build a revolutionary movement.
It’s true that we do not set the conditions for the revolution. But only a half-truth. There are material, but also subjective conditions. If the people disapproves the revolutionary movement, it won’t ever succeed. And even some material conditions are in our control, the extent of the organization of the revolutionary movement is a material thing. There are people involved.
Every revolutionary movement in the past featured intellectual, military leadership of groups of people or organizations. It’s our responsibility to prepare these conditions for revolution. But the revolution itself won’t happen by our choice.
Yes we agree. Your comment is an expanded version of what I meant by “We identify those conditions, through application of theory, and use that information to build a revolutionary movement.”
What you’re describing is praxis, the act of engaging with the material world so as to change it. The material world includes these “subjective conditions” you’re taking about. Those conditions are the hearts and minds of other people, and through practical activity in the world we shape and change the world.
Material Conditions are just the conditions under which the intellectual or military or working class or petty bourgeoisie groups live under. We must be able to identify how these groups are uniquely exploited. Then, take that information and use it to build solidarity across those groups.
Obviously were both being a bit pedantic with language here lol, but I often feel that specificity of language is important because we do not want to have misunderstandings, which is easy to do when words can have domain specific meanings and more general meanings.