Socialism is not a parrot concept, personal or governmental
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← Back to all essays | Author's essays Socialism is not a parrot concept, personal or governmental
by ComradeBirdyBird
Published: 2021-05-18 (last update: 2023-09-23)
1-5 minutes
We are in an age where communication has reached a speed never before possible. Anyone who is active on the Internet experiences a sheer wave of information every day that floods the inexperienced user. One's own bilingualism even acts as a multiplier for the mass of information that the increased appearance of contrarians, slogan parroters and misguided people should surprise no one. Where, however, does the communist stand in this situation? Who is active in international socialist forums, recognizes also here how much discord prevails, completely alone due to different information. One sees one or the other comrade even quoting superficial, obviously influenced facts.
Especially in the many national information bubbles, which are clearly influenced and created according to the interest of the respective state, it takes a lot of effort to actually work out an international, socialist perspective. History also shows how each state represents its own propaganda concept, a freedom of the press according to its own interests. The morality of it all or when propaganda is positive/negative is not relevant in this article, but the context is.
The key here is to understand that different nations report differently. The black-and-white concept that one tells the truth and the other does not is a notion more akin to a fairy tale than a political analysis.
It is the fascist's trade to focus on only one way of thinking and dismiss every other culture, perspective and approach. In communism, parroting slogans without understanding them has no place. Especially in the times of disinformation, one must open both eyes and pay special attention to detail.
One's own philosophy must be that of questioning. As a communist, one must understand action and reaction. Recognize the problem and immediately look for the root.
Comrade Lenin already mentioned similar things in "What to Do?" in the chapter The Political Revelations and "Education for Revolutionary Activity."
"The consciousness of the working class cannot be a truly political one if the workers have not learned to react to all and any cases of arbitrariness and oppression, of violence and abuse, whatever classes these cases may concern, and to react precisely from the Social-Democratic standpoint and not from any other. The consciousness of the working masses cannot be a true class consciousness if the workers do not learn it by concrete and, to this end, necessarily by current political facts and events, to observe every other class of society in all the manifestations of the mental, moral and political life of these classes [...]."
Here we recognize it with another example. Black and white thinking and parroting slogans has no place in communism. So it is one's own task, between many illusory truths, to establish the truth itself on the basis of observation and understanding of many perspectives, instead of adopting the perspective of a supposed expert.
This is of course possible in self-reference, but also in the international comparison of socialist concepts. The self-reference makes this even easier to understand. Even after the revolution has succeeded, we must not simply copy state concepts of other successful nations. Just as every culture, every natural area, every religion is different, so must our own socialist concept be different. Although these attributes overlap, they never lie directly on top of each other. Thus, it is even more important to understand the other perspective and approach, because only in this way can one unite the classes and only in this way can one recognize what is applicable to oneself and avoid what is not applicable to oneself.