4 ms·
I guess the question is how much of that is post-facto justification vs actual motivation.
by neaden 5y ago
I guess the question is how much of that is post-facto justification vs actual motivation.
- nickff 5y agoMy view is that Xi Jinping is basically practicing the classic technique of re-interpreting accepted texts to mean what you want, as a way of making your point while appearing to 'stay the course'. I think Strauss described and practiced this very well in "Persecution and the Art of Writing".[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_and_the_Art_of_Writing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_and_the_Art_of_Wri...
- droptablemain 5y agoRegardless of whether the method has some origin in classic technique, it is indeed a strategy that the vast majority of AES (actually existing socialism) states have done. That's why Soviet ideology was Marxism-Leninism vs...well...Marxism. The Sandanistas, Cuba, Vietnam, etc. have done this as well. Also the Bolivarian socialists.
- _jal 5y agoEvery power structure does it. SCOTUS justices reach diametrically opposite conclusions through the same 'technique'.
- sudosysgen 5y agoIn practical terms what China is doing right now is not so different from the NEP of Lenin.
- thriftwy 5y agoMy favourite point when dealing with USSR sympathiers is that Chinese success is owed to 40 years of NEP, which was shut down in the USSR and doomed it. (And this is due to Soviet distrust of its own Russian population, and also due to habit of siphoning money out of consumer economy) Edit: The thing is, USSR was doomed after winning WW2. It had to compete with the rest of the world economically without having adequate economy. USA just had to choose the relevant weapon (consumer economy) to win this one.
- sudosysgen 5y agoIt's not so clear that the shut-down of the NEP doomed the USSR. The argument that without Stalin's focus on heavy industry the USSR would have lost WW2 is a good one. Naturally the NEP developed light industry much more strongly than Stalin has and neglected the heavy industry necessary to win WW2 relatively.
- nahuel0x 5y agoBut Lenin viewed the NEP as a compromise with capitalism to gain time awaiting the world revolution, a dangerous one because it breed a new capitalist class out of peasants. Simultaneously with the NEP, Bolsheviks tried to help the world revolution (the policy of the third international before Stalin). China is not trying to foster any revolution, they have 100 billionaries as parliament members! China policy seems one of restoration of capitalism, not of compromise.
- sudosysgen 5y agoLenin viewed it that way on a very, very, very long scale. Lenin thought the NEP would last 70-100 years.