Marx loses currency in new China

[rayofreason]

Source: LA Times

Classes in Marxist philosophy have been compulsory in Chinese schools since not long after the 1949 communist revolution. They remain enshrined in the national education law, Article 3 of which states: "In developing the socialist educational undertakings, the state shall uphold Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tse-tung Thought and the theories of constructing socialism with Chinese characteristics as directives and comply with the basic principles of the Constitution."

But today's China is, in some respects, less socialistic than much of Western Europe, with a moth-eaten social safety net and a wild free-market economy. Students in almost any urban Chinese school can look out their classroom windows and see just about everything but socialism being constructed: high-rise office buildings, shopping malls, movie theaters, luxury apartment buildings, fast-food restaurants, hotels, factories — the whole capitalist panorama.

IT seems an understatement to say that there's a disconnect between reality and what the students are learning about Marx and Mao, who held that capitalism would inevitably and naturally give way to communism.

"Compared to my normal opinions about the world … it's something like fiction," said Du Zimu, one of Liu's classmates.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-marx26jun26,0,5538811,full.story?coll=la-home-center

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Not a very believable fiction any more. So much for Europe's only indigenous religion.

[Maven]

1. This is my favorite part of the article:

"Tian Qing, a professor of environmental education at Beijing Normal University, said this was one of 30 schools in Beijing, and a larger number scattered around the country, using an environmental curriculum developed in conjunction with the World Wildlife Fund and the British oil giant BP."

So now BP is shaping young minds about environmentalism? :wtf:

[Trillo]

2. I was just thinking how the U.S.'s Constutution

seems to be fiction. But it continues to be taught in U.S. schools, no doubt as a long term punishment and reminder that leaders (including business) can break laws with impunity, but the rest of us cannot.

This article's snippets seem to be a mirror of our own weakness. Perhaps its just projection.

[Javaman]

3. eh, when oil is gone, it will be interesting to watch as china changes back

to communism.

Same goes for here in the states. remove oil and you have an agrarian society.

[0007]

4. How true! The United States should do well with all the golf

courses converted into choice farm land.

I remember reading somewhere that if Los Angeles were converted to farm land it could support most of America.

[Javaman]

6. golf is a blight on america and a colossel drain on our resources.

when I'm king of the universe, golf will be outlawed and the courses turned into farms. Those in the middle of the desert, well be allowed to go back to nature. Those caught trying to play golf will become human plows. :)

[olddad56]

7. you already are king of the universe. In your tiny narrow mind.

[0007]

8. cough cough!.....Oh Hum, if you say so!

[Javaman]

9. Damn tootin' I am! and don't you forget it. Now where did I put my

time traveling machine. oh here it is, next to my tinfoil hat. ;)

[Vidar]

17. Arnold Palmer, is that you?

[AndyTiedye]

10. There Aren't THAT Many Golf Courses, But There Are That Many Lawns

and the lawns are right where the people live, so it is only natural that most of them will turn into vegetable gardens.

[DBoon]

15. I've turned my front lawn into a vineyard

The climate here in Los Angeles is perfect for Zinfandel.

I make 5 - 10 gals a year of wine on my small "suburban" (if Hollywood is considered a suburb) lot.

[AndyTiedye]

19. Wine vs. a Lawn to Mow. Seems Like a No-Brainer to Me

[OldschoolDem]

18. Well lets hope not

Most people can't survive without oil and thats the bottomline. People have become so dependent on there cars and on oil based products.

[Old and In the Way]

5. The Chinese have been capitalists for thousands of years.

They were theoretical communists for 30. They aren't many who want to return to the good old days of the Great Leap Forward.

[David Zephyr]

12. A very privileged few in China are "capitalists", the rest are what Marx called "wage slaves"

And the same is becoming truer every year in the U.S. as even the modest progressive economic adjustments of FDR are being rolled back.

[alcibiades_mystery]

11. Actually, Marx is perfect reading for understanding and responding to globalization

As is the large literature on post-Fordist capital in the Marxist tradition (Antonio Negri, Paolo Virno, Andre Gorz, etc.).

"...Marx and Mao, who held that capitalism would inevitably and naturally give way to communism." Ay yay yay. Mitchell Landsberg, Times Staff Writer, has a sophomoric grasp of Marx. If capitalism would "inevitably and naturally give way to communism," why on Earth would Marx push consistently for very specific forms of class struggle, even spending an inordinate amount of time not bashing the capitalists, but the socialists? It doesn't make any sense. Indeed, Marx understood all too well that tendencies in capitalism (like, say, the falling rate of profit) served as limits to be overcome, limits that called for capitalism to transform itself (and that's precisely what it's done, as Ernest Mandel and others have demonstrated in great detail). There is nothing inevitable or natural about class struggle. If there were, then Marx would have just twiddled his thumbs and waited for the "inevitable and natural" demise, the way we "wait" for the sun to burn out.

[IndianaGreen]

13. One can hardly say that China was ever Marxist

and since the death of Mao, and the liquidation of the Gang of Four, China has become a "red" capitalist state, a RID (Red in Name). This arrangement suits the transnationals fine. They know that the Chinese government will keep wages low and allow the exploitation of workers. Consider China a version of 19th century English industrialism, with lots of red banners.

[AlecBGreen]

14. good take Indie

"But today's China is, in some respects, less socialistic than much of Western Europe..."

Thats 100% accurate. It is a free-wheelin' capitalist society at this point. ANYONE can open a business or even a corner store with few to no restrictions as long as you pay off the right person... The government enforces some rules, some of the time, whenever it suits them. When they DO crack down on illegal behavior (lack of permits, street-side vending, bootlegged merchandise, etc) they crack down HARD. Or, as is the case of where I lived, the police tip everyone off beforehand, do a cursory sweep, and life returns to normal. That place is :crazy:

[ngant17]

16. China and the future

I would predict that China will be one of the most modern industrial countries in the world by AD 2050.

A deepening general crisis of capitalism has produced an enormous amount of liquid finance capital looking for a home. It is a matter of historical fact that at this moment only the Peoples Republic of China can absorb one trillion US dollars a year of this money, let alone greater amounts.

It's ironic that China can prop up capitalism in the US while still building a socialist economy for itself at home.

[JVS]

20. A party bureaucracy hijacking the country and becoming a capitalist elite is why Stalin did purges

He wasn't going to let it happen on his watch