Another thing, though. The word socialist is casually used to refer to countries with socialist intent who are working towards it, similar to communist, but socialism literally means a state where the proletariat dictate the means of production and the political system. Does that truly create multiple definitions of the word? To my knowledge, there hasn’t been a state that has met the literary definition, same with communism, but we still use it.
Do anti-Deng people dislike him for the reason of not building a literal socialist state, or do they genuinely think that he was trying to move China away from even working towards it? From everything I’ve seen, Deng was a Marxist.
Deng read and followed Lenin and Mao’s take on using state-controlled capitalism to build productive forces for transitioning towards Socialism. The hate against him does expose a lot of ‘well-read’ Marxists.
I do think that’s an important part to a potentially successful socialist experiment: having a “capitalist,” or industrialization, phase. Marx wrote about the socialist revolution beginning in an industrialized, capitalist(?) country like Germany, the UK, or the US because these people were at the heart of the capitalist, imperialist core and had felt the exploitation.
But, it seems that socialism has mainly arisen within countries that were exploited by those industrialized, capitalist countries through colonialism. I think it’s because the people in the imperial-capitalist nations are just comfortable enough to not revolt; while the people being exploited through colonialism live through hell each waking moment. Sure, work’s hard and you don’t own the means of production, but, you have a house you can go home and relax in. The people in those colonial countries don’t have any of that, making the revolution almost inevitable.
I think that quote perfectly sums things up.
Another thing, though. The word socialist is casually used to refer to countries with socialist intent who are working towards it, similar to communist, but socialism literally means a state where the proletariat dictate the means of production and the political system. Does that truly create multiple definitions of the word? To my knowledge, there hasn’t been a state that has met the literary definition, same with communism, but we still use it.
Do anti-Deng people dislike him for the reason of not building a literal socialist state, or do they genuinely think that he was trying to move China away from even working towards it? From everything I’ve seen, Deng was a Marxist.
Deng read and followed Lenin and Mao’s take on using state-controlled capitalism to build productive forces for transitioning towards Socialism. The hate against him does expose a lot of ‘well-read’ Marxists.
I do think that’s an important part to a potentially successful socialist experiment: having a “capitalist,” or industrialization, phase. Marx wrote about the socialist revolution beginning in an industrialized, capitalist(?) country like Germany, the UK, or the US because these people were at the heart of the capitalist, imperialist core and had felt the exploitation.
But, it seems that socialism has mainly arisen within countries that were exploited by those industrialized, capitalist countries through colonialism. I think it’s because the people in the imperial-capitalist nations are just comfortable enough to not revolt; while the people being exploited through colonialism live through hell each waking moment. Sure, work’s hard and you don’t own the means of production, but, you have a house you can go home and relax in. The people in those colonial countries don’t have any of that, making the revolution almost inevitable.