My roommate has been educating himself on communism, and we have been having many great conversations on theory and what have you. He says he is a communist. However, he has come to some very different conclusions to me, and I have been going back and forth on his talking points a lot. I was wondering what you guys would think of his talking points since I have to hear them and discuss them with him a lot.
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Vanguardism/council republics are inherently flawed and undemocratic. He admits that there is democracy within a Marxist-Leninist government, but says it is not good enough because you don’t vote directly for the president, etc…
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Says that vanguardism is “elitist” and that the core of the idea is that the working classes are stupid and only the intelligentsia knows right. He said he liked Lenin but he was too “mean” and didn’t speak as kindly of the peasants as he wanted. (lol)
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Attributes the fall of the USSR entirely to the democratic organization of the government. Says that if the Soviet Union had allowed a more “libertarian” “democratic” structure what happened wouldn’t have happened. I’ve also notice he attributes a lot of China’s problems historically to the way their government is structured.
all of these have responses, but specifically thinking of number 2, my understanding is that the vanguard is for those who have the time and passion for political action, not intelligence. there’s no IQ test as an entry requirement, and there never has been, if you’re passionate about politics and play nice with others you’re welcome to the vanguard party.
I’ve always said that the vanguard party isn’t meant to organize some sort of higher brow tier of individual and separate them from some chafe, but to organize those with higher class and political consciousness into one group so that they might be ready when capitalism fails to solve converging crises.