287 lines
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287 lines
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ZIG-ZAG 2.1 April 29,
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1994
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TRACKING THE MARXIST DIALECTICAL STRATEGY OF ADVANCE-RETREAT-ADVANCE OR
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UNITY-SPLIT-UNITY IN INTERNATIONAL REVOLUTION
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DEDICATED TO DEAF-MUTES AND USEFUL IDIOTS
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STEPHEN GROSSMAN <SGROSSMAN@UMASSD.EDU> OCCASIONAL INTERNET
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ZIG-ZAG
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Stephen Grossman
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(c) May 5, 1994 (1991), Fairhaven, MA,
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The Soviet retreat from eastern Europe and empire and its split into
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Russia and the other provinces resulted in aid, increased trade, and
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welcomes for their representatives. Communism has ended. Gorbachev buried
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the Cold War and Yeltsin struggles for democratic capitalism. Does this
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popular view have intellectual respectability? Understanding is not the result
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of arbitrary political experiments on arbitrary jumbles of concrete facts for
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testing arbitrary hypotheses derived from the arbitrary desire to end
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conflict. Foreign policy is not crisis-management.
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After all, as Walter Duranty, the Pragmatist who helped Stalin
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hide his Ukraine famine, told _New York Times_ readers on April 13,1921,
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"Lenin has thrown communism overboard. His signature appears in the official
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press of Moscow...abandoning State ownership....The new economic policy...was
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adopted...by the Council of Commissars of the People..." Well, now, if
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communism ended in 1921, according to one of the world's most respected
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newspapers, how was it possible that, as the _New York Times_ assured its ever
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faithful readers on May 7, 1992, that "Gorbechev Buries the Cold War?" If
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communism died seven decades ago, just exactly what was lowered into the
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ground two years ago?! Shall we take alarm from Lenin's advice to Checherin, his
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commissar of foreign affairs, "Tell them what they want to hear?" Do we,
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perhaps, hearing about the end of conflict with our enemies, believe, like the
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White Queen, six amazing things before breakfast? And is our foreign
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non-policy,including the non-discussion of continued nuclear war preparations
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in...well, Russia, a Pragmatic test of our touching faith in sentiment and
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compromise? Will this work to give us peace in our time? How much time do we
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have? Does Pragmatism work? Is Pragmatism realistic? Why does Gorbachev discuss
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"contradictions" and "this stage in history" after declaring the end of
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communism? Curiouser and curiouser!
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This conundrum cannot be solved by diplomacy, espionage, spy
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satellites, intelligence analysis or by the mainstream of contemporary
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political science and history. It requires a well-stocked library and the
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recognition of the role of philosophy in human life. Since 1848, Marxists have
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been telling anyone who cared to read that history "progresses" by temporary,
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developing contradictions to communism. This is the infamous dialectic, not
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merely a false metaphysics, but the practical revolutionary strategy of
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advance-retreat-advance or unity-split-unity.
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Lenin called them zig-zags, Stalin studied flows and ebbs, and Mao
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discussed developing contradictions. But whatever the name, the concretes of
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Soviet and, wider, Marxist policy, require more than range-of-the-moment
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Pragmatist crisis-management for understanding and counterattack. "Without
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revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement," observed Lenin.
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With more intellectual ability than most academic scholars, Stalin recognized
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that, "Dialectics is the soul of Marxism" and lamented "that disease of narrow
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empiricism and unprincipled practicalism [Pragmatism] which has not
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infrequently caused certain 'Bolsheviks' to degenerate and to abandon the
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cause of the revolution." Mao said, "Vulgar 'practical men' respect experience
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but despise theory, and therefore cannot have a comprehensive view of an
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entire objective process, lack clear direction and long-range perspective, and
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are complacent over occasional successes....Only [theory] can guide action....
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Our comrades with practical experience will be able to organize their
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experience into principles and avoid repeating empiricist errors." The Marxist
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victory in Vietnam was caused by Marx's theory, in his _Communist Manifesto_,
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that, "The Communists fight for the attainment of the immediate aims, for the
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enforcement of the momentary interests of the working class; but in the
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movement of the present, they also represent and take care of the future of
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the movement."
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In radical contrast, Americian foreign policy, as an application of
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its philosophy, is guided by Pragmatism. Consider John Dewey's bizarre claim
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that, "Conscious life is a continual beginning afresh." In a war between
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short-range Pragmatism and long-range Marxism, Marxism must win-in the long
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run. For Pragmatists, compromise is the essence, standard, and purpose of
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politics. Marxism is also Pragmatism. As Marx said, "The point is not to
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understand reality but to change it." Marxism, unlike American Pragmatism, is
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Pragmatic idealism, the ideal being world communism, and Marxists are
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Pragmatic in pursuit of that ideal. American Pragmatists regard compromise as
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absolute but Marxists view it as relative. Short-range American Pragmatists
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regard Marxist Pragmatists as essentially like them, political whores who
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intend to compromise their values, who are pleased to negotiate any value.
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Pragmatists regard politics as random, acausal, discontinuous events (that
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was then, this is now), but Marxist politics is a causally systematic process
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necessarily leading to world communism regardless of the compromises needed to
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get there. "The revolutionary will accept a reform in order to use it...for
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the overthrow of the bourgeosie," warned Stalin.
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For Marxists, politics _is_ class warfare. Thus diplomacy and even the
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very existence of nations, including the Soviet Union, _is_ war. Marxists regard
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the Soviet Union, not as a conventional nation, but as a temporary, evolving
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stage in the revolutionary process of history. Its class enemies should
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diplomatically recognize, not the Soviet Union, but the internationalists who
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regard it as a revolutiony base. Soviet totalitarianism and Russian democracy
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are merely temporary, developing stages of revolutionary progress.
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One can study the concretes of Soviet foreign policy, subversion,
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guerilla wars, military doctrine and power, the KGB, and the coordinating
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International Dept., yet remain as confused as American foreign policy
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"experts" have been for decades. Even the prophet Winston Churchill thought
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them "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." Influential political
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"scientists" study Russian nationalism or the social psychology and
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institutions of totalitarianism. Mao, however, understood that,"Communists the
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world over are wiser than the bourgeoisie [because] they understand dialectics
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and can see farther." _International Affairs_ (Moscow), the _theoretical_
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foreign policy journal of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in noting
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Sovietologist Richard Pipes' denial of a Marxist theory of foreign policy,
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declared, "Lenin worked out the theoretical foreign policy principles of the
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Socialist state and formulated its key principles and aims on the basis of...
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Marx and Engels." Clausewitz recognized that war has a political purpose.
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Building on that, Marxists recognize that politics has an intellectual purpose.
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Thus war, including revolution, is _essentially_ a conflict of ideas, not
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military combat! War is human action, not brute response.
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Marxists have developed an aggressive, sophisticated, and dangerously
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systematic theory of conflict. Rejecting the metaphysics of identity (a thing
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is what it is) for dialectical contradictions or "unity in difference,"
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Marxists claim political events _are_ developing contradictions. Political
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oppositions flow from prior political oppositions into later political
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oppositions. Pre-glasnost communism had problems which contradicted communism
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"at that stage in history," developing into the _dialectical_ end of communism.
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The Soviet retreat from communism is a _dialectical_ contradiction of its
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economic problems. The present movement toward democratic capitalism contains
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a _dialectical_ contradiction, the increased prosperity flowing into continued
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Soviet nuclear war preparations, the decrease in Western defenses, and the
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increased openness of Western polities to subversion. Dialectical history is a
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false theory and my plausable description of current Soviet politics may not
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be exactly the thinking of the leaders of world communism. This is irrelevant!
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This is the pattern of their thinking as they build on the past to "construct
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socialism" in the future.
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Rejecting the Pragmatist claim that political events are isolated
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parts of an unknowable chaos, Marxists regard them as temporary parts of an
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orderly and systematically knowable historical process which ends in communism.
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An acorn is a developing oak tree and an oak tree is a developing acorn. "War
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and peace...transform themselves into each other," said Mao. This is not the
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chaotic change of Pragmatism but a secularized Augustinianism leading to, not
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God, but social harmony. The (thesis-antithesis-synthesis) dialectic is history
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moving from capitalism through socialism to communism. Socialism, which
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dialectically includes capitalism, explains Soviet history, including Lenin
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and Stalin's New Economic Policy, Gorbachev's glasnost, and Yeltsin's
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temporary democratic capitalism. There are also minor contradictions within
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major contradictions, making Marxist strategists very busy people indeed.
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Again, while dialectics is false about reality as a whole, it's true about
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conflict. In fact, dialectical strategy is a systemizing of the traditional,
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well-accepted, strategic retreat in military affairs.
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Others, such as Sun-Tzu, the Greco-Roman historian/strategists,
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and Machiavelli, understood a divide-and-conquer strategy. Marxists, using
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systematic philosophy, have added a diabolical twist of "We divide and conquer"
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or "United we fall, divided we stand!" The revolutionary process _requires_
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splits, not merely among class enemies, but among Marxists! _Hong-ki_, the
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_theoretical_ foreign policy journal of the Communist Party of China, wrote
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that "unity, struggle, or even splits, and a new unity on a new basis"
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described the history of international communism. The revolutionary process
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requires a struggle of opposites rather than harmony for progress. The
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Sino-Soviet "split" is a dialectically necessary and temporary "moment" in the
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revolutionary process, a result of the Law of Uneven Development caused by
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different concrete conditions in each nation. The Soviets needed "peaceful
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coexistence" with their nuclear enemy while China could more easily subvert
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anti-colonialism. At other times, Soviet calls for peace and Chinese
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militarism are dialectically correct. The "unity-in-difference" in this
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Sino-Soviet split is the revolutionary process and goal. Pragmatists report
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the concrete differences between the Soviets and China but, opposing theory,
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evade the unity-split-bigger unity process which requires conflict.
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Pragmatists, ignoring the temporary nature of each "moment" in the
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revolutionary process, then claim that the end of monolithic communism enables
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us to safely lower our defenses. They also ignore Soviet and Chinese
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statements about their common goal and Chinese acceptance(!) of the more
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experienced and powerful Soviets as leaders of the revolution.
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The Chinese Cultural Revolution was not anarchy but a theoretically
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controlled process of splitting revisionists (evading theory) and dogmatists
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(evading experience) from the Party. "Without contradictions....the party's
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life would come to an end," said Mao, showing the absurdity of the
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academically influential, Pragmatist claim that contradictions mean the end of
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communism. Lenin wrote of the need to regularly purge the party, a strategy
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which partly caused the dialectical retreat from eastern Europe (a _smaller_
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dialectical retreat than Lenin's Brest-Litovsk Treaty) and the dialectical
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capitalism in the dialectically split Soviet Union. Stalin, the former
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seminary student always seeking systematic guidance, was a dialectical mass
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murderer, not the lunatic of the revisionists.
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Pragmatists, recognizing only differences, cannot agree with Chinese
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Marxist theorist/military commander/political leader Lin Piao that, "The
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Chinese Revolution is a continuation of the great October Revolution. They
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cannot accept the Soviet "coup" as a moment in the revolutionary process. "I
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sent the President an analysis of Soviet policy [which]...._began_ [not with
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Marxism as systematically understood, but] by rejecting the proposition that
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Soviet policy necessarily follows a master plan, wrote Henry Kissinger, who
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rejects ideological war for a Pragmatist balance of power. Anti-communist
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Pragmatists, like Brezinski, Kirkpatrick, and Kissinger, may be suspicious of
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the Soviets but refuse to consider Marxist theory as cause. Even those who
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know that "coup" leader Gennadi Yanayev, as former(?) Secretary of the
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International Policy Commission, was (is[?]) probably the chief planner and
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coordinator of Soviet and Marxist political influence operations ("active
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measures"), do not connect this to revolutionary theory and practice. Even
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Sovietologist Adam Ulam, advisor to the previously excellent _Political Wafare_
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and author of the accurately entitled, _Soviet Foreign Policy-Expansion and
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Coexistence_, does not recognize dialectics and accepts the alleged end of
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Marxist revolution.
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As Stalin's active measures researcher in KGB archives(!), Anatoliy
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Golitsyn said, "In the preface to his book, [also accurately entitled], _The
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Soviet Bloc: Unity and Conflict, Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote, 'I am also
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grateful to several officials of various communist states, for their
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willingness to discuss matters they should not have discussed with me.' No
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explanation is offered in the book of the reasons why communist officials
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should have been willing to speak frankly to a prominent anticommunist scholar
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and citizen of the leading 'imperialist' power,' nor is any reference made in
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the book to the possibilities of disinformation." Brzezinski rejects
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systematic foreign policy for bribery, evading millenia of ideologists willing
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to kill and die for absolutes. It is grimly ironic that America, founded on the
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Enlightenment respect for ideas, should guide its foreign policy by something
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approaching economic determinism, while its Marxist enemies, accepting
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economic determinism in principle, should wage revolution basically with
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ideas. Golitsyn and Jan Sejna, another Soviet-bloc Intelligence defector with
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access to the "long-range bloc policy," were debriefed by the CIA on Soviet
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tactics but their knowledge of strategy was unwelcome! Nixon, whose Pragmatism
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is the source of his renaissance and who accurately recognized that detente,
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the compromise between his Pragmatist anti-communism and Brezhnev's Marxism,
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was threatened, gave the orders.
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The 1991 Soviet "coup" is less a deception than a moment in the
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dialectical process. A 30-year military build-up bankrupted the Soviet economy
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and encouraged suspicion. A split between "conservatives" and "liberals,"
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including a photo-op "coup," encouraged compromise-seeking Pragmatists among
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class enemies to aid Soviet "liberals" before "conservatives" returned the
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Cold War. One leading "liberal," Alexander Yakovlev, was director of the
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International Affairs Commission of the Central Committee of the CPSU. As head
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of international political influence operations, he coordinated the public
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image of the dialectical splits among retreating Marxists. "Brezhnev
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[advised] us to pretend in our talks with Americans that we ourselves did not
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take some Marxist dogmas seriously," revealed Arkady Shevchenko, defected
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Soviet UN Ambassador. "The fable of hawks and doves contesting in the Kremlin
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has been encouraged for Western consumption by Soviet propaganda and
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disinformation outlets." The resulting aid, trade, lowered military budgets
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among "imperialists," and increased openness to subversion is enabling the
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Soviet and other Marxist revolutionaries to unify in a larger, more dangerous,
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way. Pragmatists will, once again, evade the past and future; and the
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theory-driven dialectical strategy of unity-split-unity or
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advance-retreat-advance will continue until world communism destroys Western
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civilization. Various systematic and dialectical descriptions of Soviet
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history have been made and will be discussed, along with active measures,
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agents-of-influence, military strategy, disinformation, Gramsci's theory of
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cultural hegemony, and other exciting topics, at a later time.
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Although Soviet Marxists continue nuclear war preparations, with new
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missiles, submarines and shelters, even SDI is useless unless a rational,
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systematic, and absolutist capitalist political philosophy is recognized as
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the most important weapon in our national defense. Ideology cannot be defeated
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by Pragmatism but only by another ideology. As rock chanteuse Marianne
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Faithfull so tartly sang, "We've been trying to get high without having to pay."
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_______________________________________________________________________________
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SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY (in order of importance)
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"For the New Intellectual"-Ayn Rand, in her _For the New Intellectual_,
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Signet, NYC, 1963 (1961).
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"The Difficult, Devious, and Dangerous Dialectic"-Fred Schwarz, in
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his _You Can Trust the Communists..._, Prentice-Hall, NYC, 1960.
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_New Lies For Old_-Anatoliy Golitsyn, Dodd, NYC, 1984.
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_Communist Manifesto_-Karl Marx, 1848.
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"'Left-Wing' Communism..."-Vladimir Lenin, 1920.
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"Dialectics"-Vladimir Lenin, in his _Selected Works_ XI, International,
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NYC, 1943.
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_Dialectical and Historical Materialism_-Joseph Stalin.
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"Foundations of Leninism"-Joseph Stalin, 1939.
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_Problems of Leninism_-Joseph Stalin, International, Moscow, 1934.
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"On Contradictions"-Mao Tse-Tung, 1937.
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_The Problem of Compromise in Politics..._-Alexander Lebedev, Novosti,
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Moscow, 1989.
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"On the Philosophy of Contradictions: the Sino-Soviet Dispute
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as a Case Study in Communist Conflict Thinking"-George Damien, _Orbis_ 11:4,
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Winter 1968, p. 1208.
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The Dialectical Structure of the Great Chinese Proletarian Cultural
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Revolution"-George Damien, _Orbis_ 14:1, Spring 1970, p. 19.
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================================================================================
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_ZIG-ZAG_ is archived at (ftp) etext.archive.umich.edu: /pub/Politics/ZigZag.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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_ZIG-ZAG_ wants to buy:
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_Revolution Lobby_-Allen Brownfeld_
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_Prophets or Useful Idiots_-James Tyson
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Seeking hangman's rope from capitalists. V. Lenin, Red Square, Kremlin.
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