On science, spirituality, existentialism, sectarianism and leadership in the imperialist countries
by MC5, April 25, 2001
MIM puts forward the following theses of a purely factual or scientific nature:
1. The revolution proceeds by making scientific decisions and applying them, but the more scientific decisions are made, the more certain must we be that we will alienate someone. For example, to start with, by saying that God did not create the world and that we evolved from primates and that the chimpanzee is our closest relative, 30% of the public in the United $tates already disagrees. With every scientific decision we make and advance, we lose a portion of popular support in imperialist countries especially.
2. The desire for revolution is distributed unevenly around the globe.
3. The desire necessary to achieve a goal is lower the easier achieving that goal is made by scientific advance.
4. At least a minority of society will always volunteer for self-sacrificing jobs. Even the imperialist military has many high-minded people thinking of their jobs in this light.
5. Scientific knowledge and the drive to apply it is unevenly distributed among the people.
If any of the above theses are wrong, it is likely that at least part of the strategic orientation adopted by MIM is wrong.
Strategic orientations
1. The goal of the party in the imperialist countries despite the fact that science inevitably becomes a minority matter is to promote science, without concern for short-run popularity. Popularity when truly behind enemy lines often stems from taking up enemy political lines. Popularity gains only count positively when they serve the international proletariat. Becoming more popular by compromising with creationism or its analogous equivalents does not interest MIM.
2. Sectarianism is not struggle for principles or scientific dispute. Sectarianism is retreating from a class struggle or breaking of unity in action on account of feelings arising out of bitter scientific dispute.
3. Opportunism can be defined as watering down or rejecting science to avoid alienating supporters to be won on relaxed, pre-scientific or random grounds. Although some matters are less important than others, which is why MIM specifies "principal contradictions," the notion of "principal contradiction" does not justify opportunism. The more we successfully fight sectarianism as defined above, the more we can afford to put forward science in all matters, not just the principal contradiction. The more people we train to take up the scientific method across-the-board, the better off we will be in resolving the principal contradiction.
4. The fact that we lose imperialist country support for our scientific stands does not mean we do not make them. It only means that when the masses agree with the urgency of certain central scientific analyses of ours, they will ignore the less important and less popular ones and proceed with Maoist revolution. By focussing on key links and applying the science of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, the people can do the most to advance. The reason is that some scientific questions involve matters more principal than others and their resolution does more to drive society forward.
5. The desire to be relaxed or agnostic is common among the people. Many do not understand the militance that we apply to questions and are ready like Bart of the Simpson cartoon show to tell MIM: "don't have a cow!" when it comes to any subject matter. In contrast, we believe there are many subjects to have a cow over and many more not to as a matter of making having a cow stand out more.
Relaxation of scientific drive is not what is going to propel the proletariat over the imperialists. A casual relativist stance on politics, spirituality or existentialism benefits imperialism by failing to truly unite the people against imperialism, instead producing cross-canceling actions of various individuals who then cannot overthrow imperialism because of their individualism. People who are doing drugs, wearing rose-colored glasses, taking up religion or otherwise suffering impaired vision will not be able to see the enemy when we have a decisive chance to attack and defeat it.
6. The leadership principle is only to accept as leaders in the most important positions those people who are willing to accept the supreme penalty for blood crimes or failures. We reject all kinds of careerism and opportunism in the picking of leaders. We do not want to vote for leaders who have no threshold to cross and are free to use every manipulative and posturing trick to obtain our support. Such happens in questions of leadership in bourgeois parliamentary democratic society. Viewing a leadership position in a government or corporation as one more perk in life is just as corrupt as putting people below profit directly for monetary reasons.
Stalin and Mao set high bars for leaders to cross to become leaders. The masses played a large role in determining how high those bars should be. If the bar is set too low, and the atmosphere in the communist party is too relaxed, it will appear that elections are necessary and that flipping a coin (or randomly choosing counting rules and technologies as in Florida) could actually be necessary to determine who is leader. Alternatively, campaigners may feel a need to kiss babies, shake hands with thousands of people, wear good make-up in televised debates and even pay voters to vote in some circumstances. All of these problems with selecting political leaders disappear the moment the bar is raised. Hence, Lenin said "better fewer, but better." The problem should be that the masses need to clamor for and groom leaders they really want, not to choose amongst leaders with nothing to offer but Linda Tripp.
If the persyn in charge of producing tires for the country's cars can lose his or her life for being in charge of tires and doing what Firestone leaders did to kill over 300 people with faulty tires they knew about or should have known about, we will find that many people are unwilling to be in charge of tires. We will find a shortage of leaders and we will not have to have meaningless parliamentary elections that distinguish between whose side slept with Monica Lewinsky and whose did not. Nor will we have to choose between engineers with 10 years of experience and people with 2 MBAs for the position of leader. In other words, phony credentialism will also decrease by raising the leadership principle and applying it.
We believe we can even become somewhat popular for saying that we want leaders who rise above a certain threshold, not elections in most cases. Many people are sickened by politics as it exists. Elections should be reserved only for those leisure-time matters which really cannot result in accidental or criminal deaths. For matters which unfortunately still exist today that involve life-and-death questions, we insist that our leaders be both scientifically prepared and self-sacrificing.
The prestige of any Maoist internationalist party under the dictatorship of the proletariat should stem both from its willingness to overcome the problems of the old society and to move forward on life-and-death questions under socialism, upon possible penalty of imprisonment or death. The Maoist internationalist party will include those people who in old society would have volunteered for police, fire and military duties out of a sense of self-sacrifice (a minority, but an existing minority nonetheless). Any other conception means that state power attracts careerists like a fire-hydrant attracts dogs.
The Maoist internationalist party of any nation does not see itself as an organization that will offer voters better beer and pizza, superior television wrestling entertainment as in the governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura (or nude, full-body contact as in the case of one stripper who won in Italian parliamentary elections). We see ourselves as a problem-solving organization that the masses of the world may come to choose to rule or partially rule the imperialist countries in conjunction with other Maoist internationalist parties. The masses have to have already decided that they need a scientific organization dedicated to applying science to the solution of hunger, homelessness, health, environment, patriarchy and war problems.
7. This brings us to the question of existentialism or spirituality of classes and individuals. As a class, the Third World proletariat is already subjectively motivated to end war, hunger, homelessness etc. There is no need to delve profoundly into its psyche, its spirituality or existentialism. In fact, the existential philosophical endeavors of the Third World proletarian will tend on average toward Marxism more than capitalism. Without confidence in this fact, and if this fact were not true, MIM would be wrong.
In the imperialist countries, the appeal of Maoism does not stem from its better electoral tactics--finer wine, wimmin or song as many would suggest that we take up. Nor can Maoism merge with either spirituality or existentialism and come out on top in the imperialist countries. The reason for this is that the subjective element in the imperialist countries is on average materially rooted in parasitism. Awakening of existentialism, Satanism or spirituality in the imperialist countries leads to wallowing or enhanced mystical parasitism ripe for fascist harvest.
MIM is confident that there exists a group of people with the subjective motivations to bring an end to imperialism. MIM does not find any need to waste time or resources wallowing in individual psychiatric, spiritual or existential questions--except for very short answers to very small sets of questions as discussed here, the smaller the set of questions the better. 99% of MIM is science that makes resolution of imperialist-caused problems easier. Only 1% is that initial "why" or "existential" question of why to act.
A student goes to medical school after deciding to be a doctor. Once in school, most of his or her time is dedicated to learning the art and science of medicine. His or her time is not mostly dedicated to wondering whether he or she should be a medical student to begin with. Likewise, the people only choose the Maoist internationalist party after deciding to take care of certain problems. The doctor advertises solutions to AIDS and a host of other diseases. Likewise, the Maoist internationalist party advertises itself, but if the global patient does not want to be cured of imperialism, Maoist internationalist parties will not lead dictatorship of the proletariat.
The existential question needing resolution in the imperialist countries can be very brief, only one question. It could be that reducing premature deaths is the only "value" choice someone needs to make to become Maoist. The rest is science. Those who oppose life itself might as well get about dying, and thus there is nothing very complicated about this overly profound or simple idea.
People seeking to open endless "values" questions in imperialist countries will only awaken fascism. The United $tates has no lack of Christian preachers pretending to have solutions to social problems through their preaching. The increase in televised preaching (televangelism) does not stop murder, abortion, homelessness or any other problem. People who wallow and get no where become frustrated and go for fascism. In addition, our vulnerability to such fascism increases only the more we fail to adopt the leadership principle ourselves and the more the masses see no alternative to bourgeois democracy's leadership style other than fascism. That is why MIM seeks to cut back on the existential questions in the imperialist countries and take up scientific leadership questions instead.
MIM talks about ideology mostly as a matter of understanding social groups that go about their business. It is not a case that the MIM platform is a long list of values choices. Rather it is a long list of actions that go together in a connected way--connected by the power of the international proletariat and the inevitable collapse of imperialism.
To the reactionaries who question our goals, we say to please set about dying. Eat your unregulated meat bought from profiteers; live in zones where arms and drugs traders make their money; take drugs from pharmaceutical companies unregulated and unhampered by proletarian class struggle. "Live free" as New Hampshire says and die quickly of syphilis, because you took phony penicillin manufactured for profit dispensed by an unregulated medical doctor "free" to practice his or her individualist form of medicine. Pray to your gods and condemn us humyns living here and now as inadequate, but go to meet your more perfect gods sooner.
We say the same to other idealists who have no praise for any movement here on earth, whether their idealism is absolute humyn-rights or any other idea that justifies criticizing all that live on this earth in the name of the Idea. Such idealists are really misanthropes, looking everywhere and finding no humyn movement worth extending, deepening and improving. Yes, we say to you idealists above us with your "ends don't justify the means" ideas--go to your Maker; we are no doubt inferior to Him. Go to Him quickly and leave us here living "the weakness of the flesh." We don't have time to wallow in your spiritual, existential and religious quests. We are busy saving the living.
Contact MIM by writing mim@mim.org