The following message is reposted from Bob Avakian Official at Substack.
Link to downloadable PDF at the bottom of the page.
This is Bob Avakian—REVOLUTION—number 108.
We are living in very heavy times—times that demand a serious, scientific approach to understanding the reality that we are confronted with and the possibility of changing this in a positive way.
One of the most significant obstacles to this is the influence of “woke-identity” thinking which insists that “lived experience” is the most important thing in determining what is true, and what to do.
“Lived experience” is important—but it doesn’t give you an understanding of the deeper causes and relations of things.
If you have the “lived experience” of being sick, that tells you something about the symptoms you have, but it doesn’t tell you why you are sick, what the essential nature of that sickness is, and what could be a possible treatment for that sickness.
The same is true with regard to the “lived experience” of being discriminated against and oppressed: That “lived experience” tells you some important things, but it doesn’t tell you what is the fundamental cause of that discrimination and oppression, how it might relate to other forms of oppression, is there a solution to all this oppression—and, if so, what is that solution?
The “lived experience” of being in this country does not give you an understanding of the basic nature of the system that rules in this country and dominates in the world as a whole—the system of capitalism-imperialism. It doesn’t tell you why this system has now given rise to the fascist rule of Donald Trump, what that has to do with the basic nature of this whole system, and why this whole system needs to be abolished through a revolution that is urgently needed, and is possible.
To understand these crucial things, you need a scientific method and approach.
And that scientific method and approach is not limited to—and is not the “property” of—any particular “identity.” It can be, and needs to be, taken up and applied by anyone and everyone who really wants to understand why there is injustice, oppression, and needless suffering in the world, how to most effectively fight against that, and how to finally put an end to it.
This is the scientific method and approach of the new communism—which I have developed, and which is the foundation and basic guideline for The Revcom Corps For The Emancipation Of Humanity, which is working tirelessly to bring forward the necessary force of thousands, and then millions, to carry out the revolution to sweep away the system of capitalism-imperialism that is the fundamental cause of all the atrocity and unnecessary suffering in the world, and to bring a fundamentally different and much better system into being.
Everyone who is truly sick and tired of the horrors of this world, and longs for an end to all this injustice, oppression, and unnecessary suffering, needs to join with The Revcom Corps For The Emancipation Of Humanity and become part of growing forces taking up and actively applying the scientific method and approach of the new communism.