Deng Xiaoping: Difference between revisions

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Deng Xiaoping (August 22, 1904 – February 19, 1997), formerly known as Deng Xiansheng, was a Chinese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary and theorist, who was the de facto head of state of the People's Republic of China from 1977 to 1992, following the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. He was born in Guang'an, Sichuan. His primary contributions to Marxist theory include the Socialist Market Economy, Reform and Opening Up, the Four Modernizations, and the Four Cardinal Principles, which are included under his theoretical thinking which is known as Deng Xiaoping Theory.

Infrared's Assessment of Deng Xiaoping[edit | edit source]

Haz Al-Din stated^[1] the following about Deng:

Why is Deng Xiaoping correct? Everyday I realize how correct Deng Xiaoping was. […] Deng Xiaoping Thought exists beyond the threshold of Ilyenkov's self-sacrificial apocalypse. […] Deng Xiaoping is not a revisionist but is merely elaborating Marxism-Leninism to its conclusion. […] Deng Xiaoping's unleashing of the productive forces amounts the aftermath of Ilyenkov's apocalypse. It is post apocayltic. Where Ilienkov cannot perceive any reality outside of this apocalypse in which we are … that reality is already taken for granted in Socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Haz explains that Deng Xiaoping's contribution to Marxism-Leninism is the understanding that the pace of socialist construction happens at a level that escapes the purview of socialist consciousness, that socialist consciousness is actually derivative and secondary with regard to the material scale of time at which socialist construction occurs.

The quote references Soviet philosopher, Evald Ilyenkov, who Haz regards as expressing the ultimate conclusion of official Soviet Marxist-Leninist ideology in its purest form. In his famous work, Cosmology of Spirit, he writes that at a certain point in the development of communist society, mankind will voluntarily induce a cosmic catastrophe, so as to reverse the process of 'thermal dying' or the heat death of the universe.

For Haz, the true meaning of this bold outlook lies in the Soviet view of the objectivity of socialism, beyond the threshold of the Soviet ideological apparatus, as an apocalypse, a final unity of the ideal with material reality, which actually entails the negation of material reality. Thus, Soviet ideology implicitly regards communism as an ever-distant ideal, to be realized at some later date in the future. It cannot actually be achieved, for this means the negation of all reality.

Deng Xiaoping's contribution to Marxism-Leninism, by contrast, allows for the recognition of socialism as an objective historical phenomena, irreducible to any individual consciousness or ideal. Socialist construction is recognized to occur at a scale far beyond the threshold of individual consciousness, itself integrating the entire movement of the world economy, global market, and even Western capitalist system toward the rational conclusion of an entirely new mode of production. Socialism, when understood as the riddle of history solved and the true driving force of history, does not need to be imposed upon reality, only recognized. The economic policies of a Proletarian Dictatorship, guided by the scientific socialist outlook, reflect a wise appraisal of a historical phenomena that is ultimately beyond its own direct control.

Rather than engaging in the voluntarist and utopian re-modeling of all society from scratch, the main significance of a proletarian dictatorship lies in ensuring the sovereign nature of economic development. This is in contrast to the chaos of the cultural revolution, where 'socialism' as an ideal was sought after in all of the most minute details of culture, society, and the economy.

Whereas the Soviet Marxism-Leninism and the Western Cartesian outlook underlying it regarded material reality beyond consciousness to be apocalyptic, Deng Xiaoping in a sense renders it possible to regard socialism as a post-apocalyptic phenomena, going beyond the threshold of the idealist, rationalist, and gnoseological assumptions of bourgeois civilization.

Works[edit | edit source]

The Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping Volume 1 (1938–1965)^[2]
The Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping Volume 2 (1975–1982)^[3]
The Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping Volume 3 (1982–1992)^[4]

References[edit | edit source]

[1] What Deng Xiaoping means for Socialism - Infrared show clip from Talonsight

[2] The Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping Volume 1

[3] The selected works of deng xiaoping volume 2

[4] The Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping Volume 3

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[2]

[3]

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-'''Deng Xiaoping''' (August 22, 1904 — February 19, 1997, formerly known as Deng Xiansheng, was a Chinese [[Marxist-Leninist]]  revolutionary and theorist, who was the de facto head of state of the People's Republic of China from 1977 to 1992, following the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. He was born in Guang'an, Sichuan. His primary contributions to Marxist theory include the Socialist Market Economy, Reform and Opening Up, the Four Modernizations and the Four Cardinal Principles, which are included under his theoretical thinking which is known as Deng Xiaoping Theory.
+[[File:Deng Xiaoping.jpg|thumb]]
+'''Deng Xiaoping''' (August 22, 1904 – February 19, 1997), formerly known as Deng Xiansheng, was a Chinese [[Marxist-Leninist]]  revolutionary and theorist, who was the de facto head of state of the People's Republic of China from 1977 to 1992, following the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. He was born in Guang'an, Sichuan. His primary contributions to Marxist theory include the Socialist Market Economy, [[Reform and Opening Up]], the Four Modernizations, and the Four Cardinal Principles, which are included under his theoretical thinking which is known as [[Deng Xiaoping Theory]].
 == Infrared's Assessment of Deng Xiaoping ==
-From an Infrared show clip titled "What Deng Xiaoping means for Socialism“<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niZQpeFmffU What Deng Xiaoping means for Socialism - Infrared show clip] from Talonsight</ref>, Infrared showrunner Haz Al-Din can be quoted as saying<blockquote>Why is Deng Xiaoping correct? Everyday I realise how correct Deng Xiaoping was...Deng Xiaoping Thoughts exists beyond the threshold of Ilienkov's self-sacrificial apocalypse...Deng xiaoping is not a revisionist but is merely elaborating marxism leninism to its conclusion....Deng Xiaoping's unleashing of the productive forces amounts the aftermath of Ilienkov's apocalypse. It is post apocayltic. Where Ilienkov cannot perceive any reality outside of this apocalypse in which we are...that reality is already taken for granted in socialism with chinese characteristics.</blockquote>Haz Al-Din states that Deng Xiaoping's contribution to Marxism-Leninism is the understanding that the pace of socialist construction happens at a level that escapes the purview of socialist consciousness. That socialist consciousness is actually derivative and secondary with regard to the material scale of time which socialist construction occurs. This notion can be otherwise interpreted as that the productive relations can only be as advanced as the productive forces, of which higher relations of production can only come from higher productive forces. And productive relations are secondary to the productive forces.
+[[Haz Al-Din]] stated<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niZQpeFmffU What Deng Xiaoping means for Socialism - Infrared show clip] from Talonsight</ref> the following about Deng:<blockquote>Why is Deng Xiaoping correct? Everyday I realize how correct Deng Xiaoping was. […] Deng Xiaoping Thought exists beyond the threshold of Ilyenkov's self-sacrificial apocalypse. […] Deng Xiaoping is not a revisionist but is merely elaborating Marxism-Leninism to its conclusion. […] Deng Xiaoping's unleashing of the productive forces amounts the aftermath of Ilyenkov's apocalypse. It is post apocayltic. Where Ilienkov cannot perceive any reality outside of this apocalypse in which we are … that reality is already taken for granted in Socialism with Chinese characteristics.</blockquote>
-To Haz, this is an idea that is an elaboration of Marxism-Leninism, and we can see this evidently in the text, ''A Critique of the German Ideology'' in which Marx says fundamentally the same thing, which is the following:<ref>[https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/Marx_The_German_Ideology.pdf A critique of German Ideology - p14]</ref><blockquote>And, on the other hand, this development of productive forces (which itself implies the actual empirical existence of men in their world-historical, instead of local, being) is an absolutely necessary practical premise because without it want is merely made general, and with destitution the struggle for necessities and all the old filthy business would necessarily be reproduced; and furthermore, because only with this universal development of productive forces is a universal intercourse between men established, which produces in all nations simultaneously the phenomenon of the "propertyless" mass (universal competition), makes each nation dependent on the revolutions of the others, and finally has put world-historical, empirically universal individuals in place of local ones.
+Haz explains that Deng Xiaoping's contribution to Marxism-Leninism is the understanding that the pace of socialist construction happens at a level that escapes the purview of socialist consciousness, that socialist consciousness is actually derivative and secondary with regard to the material scale of time at which socialist construction occurs.
-Without this, (i) communism could only exist as a local event; (2) the forces of intercourse themselves could not have developed as universal, hence intolerable powers: they would have remained home-bred conditions surrounded by superstition; and (3) each extension of intercourse would abolish local communism.</blockquote>And once more, in the same text he states:<blockquote>"Thus things have now come to such a pass that the individuals must appropriate the existing totality of productive forces, not only to achieve self-activity, but, also, merely to safeguard their very existence. This appropriation is first determined by the object to be appropriated, the productive forces, which have been developed to a totality and which only exist within a universal intercourse. From this aspect alone, therefore, this appropriation must have a universal character corresponding to the productive forces and the intercourse... ...This appropriation is further determined by the persons appropriating. Only the proletarians of the present day, who are completely shut off from all self-activity, are in a position to achieve a complete and no longer restricted self-activity, which consists in the appropriation of a totality of productive forces and in the thus postulated development of a totality of capacities. All earlier revolutionary appropriations were restricted; individuals, whose self-activity was restricted by a crude instrument of production and a limited intercourse, appropriated this crude instrument of production, and hence merely achieved a new state of limitation. Their instrument of production became their property, but they themselves remained subordinate to the division of labour and their own instrument of production. In all expropriations up to now, a mass of individuals remained subservient to a single instrument of production; in the appropriation by the proletarians, a mass of instruments of production must be made subject to each individual, and property to all.</blockquote>Marx is referring to how the restriction and lack of development of the productive forces merely achieves limited socialism. That their revolutionary appropriation would be limited and merely a new state of limitation or a crude state of production. If the productive forces are not fully developed or fully emancipated, or given full play to development to strengthen socialism, socialism will become limited and stagnate. This will also inevitably limit workers emancipation and restrict their access to greater material luxuries which are afforded by higher productive forces.. Developing and advancing the productive forces, socialism will be unable to reach it's goal of communism, which is to say, socialism will fail in it's ultimate goal, achieving Communism.
+The quote references Soviet philosopher, [[Evald Ilyenkov]], who Haz regards as expressing the ultimate conclusion of official Soviet Marxist-Leninist ideology in its purest form. In his famous work, ''Cosmology of Spirit'', he writes that at a certain point in the development of communist society, mankind will voluntarily induce a cosmic catastrophe, so as to reverse the process of 'thermal dying' or the heat death of the universe.
-We can clearly see that Marx believed that the role of the productive forces was primary, while the relations of production are contingent and secondary upon which the level of the productive forces are developed. This confirms Haz's assessment that Deng Xiaoping was merely elaborating Marxism-Leninism to it's logical conclusion.
+For Haz, the true meaning of this bold outlook lies in the Soviet view of the objectivity of socialism, beyond the threshold of the Soviet ideological apparatus, as an apocalypse, a final unity of the ideal with material reality, which actually entails the negation of material reality. Thus, Soviet ideology implicitly regards communism as an ever-distant ideal, to be realized at some later date in the future. It cannot actually be achieved, for this means the negation of all reality.
+Deng Xiaoping's contribution to Marxism-Leninism, by contrast, allows for the recognition of socialism as an objective historical phenomena, irreducible to any individual consciousness or ideal. Socialist construction is recognized to occur at a scale far beyond the threshold of individual consciousness, itself integrating the entire movement of the world economy, global market, and even Western capitalist system toward the rational conclusion of an entirely new mode of production. Socialism, when understood as the riddle of history solved and the true driving force of history, does not need to be imposed upon reality, only recognized. The economic policies of a [[Dictatorship of the Proletariat|Proletarian Dictatorship]], guided by the scientific socialist outlook, reflect a wise appraisal of a historical phenomena that is ultimately beyond its own direct control.
+Rather than engaging in the [[voluntarism|voluntarist]] and utopian re-modeling of all society from scratch, the main significance of a proletarian dictatorship lies in ensuring the sovereign nature of economic development. This is in contrast to the chaos of the cultural revolution, where 'socialism' as an ideal was sought after in all of the most minute details of culture, society, and the economy.
+Whereas the Soviet Marxism-Leninism and the Western Cartesian outlook underlying it regarded material reality beyond consciousness to be apocalyptic, Deng Xiaoping in a sense renders it possible to regard socialism as a post-apocalyptic phenomena, going beyond the threshold of the idealist, rationalist, and gnoseological assumptions of bourgeois civilization.
 ==Works==
-*The Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping Volume 1 (1938 - 1965)<ref>[https://dengxiaopingworks.wordpress.com/selected-works-vol-1-1938-1965/ The Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping Volume 1] </ref>
+*The Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping Volume 1 (1938–1965)<ref>[https://dengxiaopingworks.wordpress.com/selected-works-vol-1-1938-1965/ The Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping Volume 1] </ref>
-*The Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping Volume 2 (1975 - 1982)<ref>[https://dengxiaopingworks.wordpress.com/selected-works-vol-2-1975-1982/ The selected works of deng xiaoping volume 2]</ref>
+*The Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping Volume 2 (1975–1982)<ref>[https://dengxiaopingworks.wordpress.com/selected-works-vol-2-1975-1982/ The selected works of deng xiaoping volume 2]</ref>
-*The Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping Volume 3 (1982 - 1992)<ref>[https://dengxiaopingworks.wordpress.com/selected-works-vol-3-1982-1992/ The Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping Volume 3]</ref>
+* The Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping Volume 3 (1982–1992)<ref>[https://dengxiaopingworks.wordpress.com/selected-works-vol-3-1982-1992/ The Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping Volume 3]</ref>
 ==References==