"Read theory."
We say this all the time. It's basically an expression, isn't it? It can be advise, bragging, scorn, mockery. It's all become a bit ephemeral.
That's not to say that people shouldn't read theory. Without revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary movement. Even so, isn't it a bit silly to suggest, even implicitly, that being a Marxist or communist boils down to a familiarity with the source material? If that's not book worship, I don't know what is.
I understand that this is, on some level, an accusation. I am suggesting that many of our communities are caught up in a somewhat liberal, idealist mindset. We all have an ideology, a set of opinions about the world which we express and propagate at the expense of our competitors. Can we seriously deny this is what we are doing?
If Marxism-Leninism is a science, there must be some technical aspect. What are we supposed to do in the world? How do we do it? And how do we know if it's working?
Check out the book The Worldview and Philosophical Methodology of Marxism-Leninism it covers this in its intro:
The word “science,” and, by extension, “scientific” in Marxism-Leninism has spe- cific meaning. Friedrich Engels was the first to describe the philosophy which he devel- oped with Marx as “Scientific Socialism” in his book Socialism: Utopian and Scientific. However, it should be noted that the English phrase “scientific socialism” comes from Engels’ use of the German phrase “wissenschaftlich sozialismus.”
“Wissenschaft” is a word which can be directly translated as “knowledge craft” in German, and this word encompasses a much more broad and general concept than the word “science” as it’s usually used in English. In common usage, the word “science” in English has a relatively narrow definition, referring to systematically acquired, objective knowledge pertaining to a particular subject. But “wissenschaft” refers to a systematic pursuit of knowledge, research, theory, and understanding. “Wissenschaft” is used in any study that involves system- atic investigation. And so, “scientific socialism” is only an approximate translation of “wissenschaftlich sozialismus.” So, “scientific socialism” can be understood as a body of theory which analyzes and interprets the natural world to develop a body of knowl- edge, which must be constantly tested against reality, with the pursuit of changing the world to bring about socialism through the leadership of the proletariat.
The book focuses on, as it says on the tin, The Worldview and Philosophical Methodology of Marxism-Leninism. It wants you to understand the philosophical methodology behinds Marxism-Leninism. Its a translation of a Vietnamese college course on ML theory that is required study for all college students.
So you must strive to have a Marxist-Leninist Worldview (The whole of an individual’s or society’s opinions and conceptions about the world, about humans ourselves, and about life and the position of human beings in the world.) and to build that worldview within you requires reading theory. You want to test your worldview against objective reality often and regularly.
Can you link to the book you're talking about? I'm having trouble finding it.
https://archive.org/details/intro-basic-princ-marx-lenin-part-1-final/page/n1/mode/1up
Yeah I forget the book has like 3 names.
“Luna Nguyen’s groundbreaking translation”, “Banyan House Publishing”… Luna Oi!
Yes! If you can support her and her teams work please do!
I created a Comradery account just for her and NC long ago, but had to switch to Patreon because it was in beta and had issues.
This is a fantastic resource comrade. Thank you. Off the top of your head, do you know of a place I can find more textbooks or classroom-like material from communist countries available in the US? Either in print or digital?
I don't personally. Maybe there are more. I do know this book is part of a 3 or 4 book series and they are currently translating book 2. Its a very easy read, the glossary and index are super useful. I think it's great even as a reference document.