My titles are wacky and I am wacky, and I am going to give myself a hug right now before I continue.
Okay.
I do often get questions about being a communist/socialist or whatever you might want to call it, because I’ll quote Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Sankara, Ho Chi Minh, and many other well known communist leaders, and the question is usually about authoritarianism, which is a fair thing to ask me about.
So what is my position on that? Well, I’ve talked about it a little bit before, but the gist of it is that while I am not some kind of hard authoritarian, I do believe power structures need to exist simply because while humans do work well together, we’re not as efficient as herd animals and thus need an occasional nudge to work together properly and to the benefit of everyone.
That’s not an easy task, as any kindergarten teacher will tell you, and so rules, regulations, community policing, all necessary, at least in the short to mid term.
The problem is that humans are corruptible. We’re easily swayed, far too often, and can be conditioned to accept our own enslavement, thus opening us up to exploitation, which is where we are right now.
Peter Kropotkin in his book “The Conquest of Bread” talked about how we had the labor power to feed, clothe, and shelter everyone, to meet everyone’s needs, without having to exploit others for it. Karl Marx and Freidrick Engels laid out the very foundations of how such a system could work.
Lenin would later modify that work somewhat and, through revolution, managed to make it happen in Tsarist Russia. In a short time, the newly formed USSR was building a structure that would empower far more workers than at any time in history, opening up new rights for people who had been oppressed for generations (for example, it was no longer illegal to be gay).
Unfortunately, Lenin died from complications due to stroke not too long after, and his legacy was handed over to Josef Stalin.
There are a lot of opinions on Stalin. Some think he was a good man who engaged in heavy handed tactics to protect the new Soviet Union. Others believe he was a monster who tried to crush any and all who sought freedom.
As is often but not always the case about historical figures, the truth about him is somewhere in the middle, and the circumstances around his leadership is fraught with both glossing over of terrible policies, and outright lies about his involvement in famines and oppression.
Of course, I can’t really go into his life here, but I will recommend several books from actual historians (and not the fuckholes who wrote the Black Book of Communism, because they’re Nazis, and I mean they were literal Nazis). They will be at the bottom of this blog post.
Suffice to say, for now, however, is that authority can be a good thing. Sometimes we require it: for example, we have scientific authority, and we have structured guidelines for how we interpret and authorize the positions those scientific authorities have.
You don’t go to a crystal healer for cancer treatment do you? If you do, you shouldn’t. I’m not one to reject the idea of using every possible means to treat a disease, but you should always be aware of what is a treatment and what’s just someone’s bullshit fleecing your pocket and reducing your time here on this earth in the name of their greed.
You have to be careful when dealing with people who claim to be an authority about anything. Make them back up their touted bona fides. Ask them for evidence that proves their claims. It’s okay. Anyone who is out to treat you and has your interests at heart will be glad to show you their knowledge.
Those who don’t get awfully fucking defensive really fast. Be careful around such personalities, they are often involved in, or trying to get involved in, a cult mentality. To quote a great philosopher, “ain’t nobody got time for that.”
So what is it that I believe about authority?
Well, I believe authority is necessary, for now, but should be used as sparingly as possible for anything not directly related to the health and well-being of others.
I do not believe any authority should have the power of life and death over others as a means of punishment.
I believe that most authority ends where someone else’s nose begins, but that there are times where collective authority is necessary to protect the whole. For example, I was fine with the policy of mandatory masking during the height of the COVID pandemic. It angered some people, but I knew that a mask could significantly reduce the rate of transmission, and save lives. It was a very small concession which would lead to a significant benefit for everyone, especially the vulnerable.
Are you getting the picture? As a socialist, I don’t want to take away your house, your car, or your toothbrush. I’m not going to demand you observe fealty towards the state. Fuck that.
What I am going to ask you to do is give up some of your greed, some of your xenophobia, some of your selfishness, and a little of your main character mindset in order to better help those who may not be as fortunate as you are, people who deserve their material needs met just like you do.
I don’t believe that’s too much to ask. If we are the society we claim to be, if humanity really is this evolved and evolving species, then we must show our work. We must prove that we have the capability and the will to become better than what we have been conditioned to believe here and now.
We deserve better than having our lives used as poker chips in someone else’s capitalist bluff.
To get to a place where that is possible, we will need to concede some of our individualism, some of our personal autonomy. If we can’t do that in order to keep others from falling through the cracks of this society, then what are we except a loose band of self-interested hyper-individualists who demand we get help for ourselves and then abandon everyone else in their time of need?
Just something I was thinking about while eating some french fries.
.Red
Reading list:
Stalin: History and Critique of a Black Legend by Losurdo
Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti
