Yeah I have no real issue with China in general. I originally commented in here to make the point that it's 100% legitimate to be a genuine Marxist scholar who takes serious issue with major AES examples, and frankly, most of them in the 20th century did.
There's a tendency in newish (meaning within the past decade or so, basically after the left went dormant) to rally behind mythical figures and narratives, whether it be Marx himself, or countries like China. They cling to them as the position from which they fight their battles to the right.
But the 20th century WAS rich with people who viewed Marx's political project not as Foundation style psychohistory, but as another step in a political and philosophical tradition, and one which we need to mold to our conditions. Part of that meant, for them, accepting the truth when revolutions did not produce the kind of society they wished for. This was a REALLY hard step for Sartre in particular, and it cost him his friendship with Camus.
Yeah I have no real issue with China in general. I originally commented in here to make the point that it's 100% legitimate to be a genuine Marxist scholar who takes serious issue with major AES examples, and frankly, most of them in the 20th century did.
There's a tendency in newish (meaning within the past decade or so, basically after the left went dormant) to rally behind mythical figures and narratives, whether it be Marx himself, or countries like China. They cling to them as the position from which they fight their battles to the right.
But the 20th century WAS rich with people who viewed Marx's political project not as Foundation style psychohistory, but as another step in a political and philosophical tradition, and one which we need to mold to our conditions. Part of that meant, for them, accepting the truth when revolutions did not produce the kind of society they wished for. This was a REALLY hard step for Sartre in particular, and it cost him his friendship with Camus.