Assuming we agree with the concept of Cultural Revolution. Does it make sense for a Revolutionary Party to start thinking about the nature of the CR early on, before taking power, or does it only makes sense to consider it once the whole country becomes revolutionary and that we can study the objective conditions on the new revolutionary society? I'm leaning towards the later, but then again, I am also under the impression that the former is possible (e.g. Black liberation movements in the US tried to do some version of CR) and that the earlier it starts being theorized, the better.
I tend to think that the cultural revolution is what starts the revolution proper. Could just be how my philosophy delineates cause and effect, of course. But I don't foresee a vanguard party taking power in america without a massive shift in culture happening first.
Though, of course, a revolutionary vanguard would, in turn, expand upon the cultural revolution as a necessary part of its work. I suppose they are two modes of revolution that are intertwined, and rely upon one another to exist.
Revolution is the goal, and a cultural revolution is both a necessary precondition, and a necessary goal, of that. It's a big of a chicken-or-the-egg scenario, but I agree that the sooner the seeds of a cultural revolution are sown, the better. And I believe that a true revolution depends on a cultural one. :red-fist:
I lean hard to number two. The Cultural Revolution is also about unleashing the masses on the Party itself to keep it true. So long as the Revolutionary Party is in conflict with reactionary elements and bourgeois power absolute discipline and clarity of focus is required. When a dictatorship of the proletariat is established then the revolutionary party has the obligation to cement power within the masses and to undertake a cultural revolution as a project. Thinking about that before taking power is premature because you have no idea what the conditions, material or otherwise, would be.
That is the impression I have too, but I also question whether it shouldn't start already during the early stage of the moment, maybe in a lighter form, to avoid the situation the CPC faced where so many people were purged at once that many positions were left unfilled and lead to the recall of, for example, Deng.
For western countries I would suggest CR first as battling reactionary elements and getting the inactive public active is crucial: you would need massive numbers to change America or Britain into a social democracy or most of the reactionary population would have to be unable to resist (if say they all die from diseases they insist are fake).
In countries that aren't quite so beaten into capitalist worship I think the key is to gain power first so imperialists can't see the signs and start acting against the CR (like Iran being coup'd because of the threat of nationalizing of oil, just going full vanguard and then doing it gives the cia and mi5 less time to plan).