In January, Sunsara Taylor interviewed the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian (BA). In Part 2 of that interview, she asked him about what role his social media messages play in helping people to understand, and radically change, the world.
Watch his answer:
Listen to and watch Bob Avakian
There are some key things that BA speaks to there that I don't think we've really appreciated.
BA's social media messages do speak to timely burning questions. They are working on obstacles in people's thinking that have to get quickly cleared away. Struggling with people who don't want to confront how rapidly fascism is consolidating or who don't get that fascism—no matter how it comes to power—is illegitimate. BA breaks down why the Democrats won't fight these fascists the way they need to be fought. He exposes the system of capitalism-imperialism that underlies this fascism and causes so many other horrors. He answers people who think the problem is "human nature," instead of the nature of the system of capitalism-imperialism, and how a radically different system is necessary and possible. He is waging struggle with Black people about their role and responsibility among the front ranks in the fight to defeat fascism... and I could go on and on.
So the content of these messages really matter—and we should make a big deal out of these when they come out. It would open up a different dynamic in society if what BA was speaking to were the questions being sharply debated by millions of people.
But even more important than the content of each individual piece is learning from the method that BA applies—and trains others in—in all of his messages.
As BA said, his social media is "speaking to particular things, but it’s also seeking and working to give people the kind of method necessary to scientifically understand these things, rather than all looking like a big jumble of mysteries. And then people being provided with explanations which don’t really explain things, but which keep them boxed into the world the way it is with all the horrors that are going on and the even greater ones that are looming."
Getting inside of these social media messages—not just one, but through the cumulative process—is how you and others can get trained in this scientific method. (By cumulative process, I mean what happens when you keep listening to the whole series of BA's social media messages.) It is not just learning this or that idea one after another, but learning to think critically, to take up the tools of science.
Take one example with BA's message REVOLUTION #118, “This system has brought forth Trump/MAGA fascism: People, in their millions, must put an end to this fascist regime—NOW—before it is too late!"
BA poses the question that is agonizing literally millions and millions of people right now: "Why are we facing this fascism?" Take 11 minutes now and listen to his clear and succinct answer.
Listen to and watch Bob Avakian's social media message #118
Think about the method that BA is applying.
First, he locates this in the system of capitalism-imperialism itself. He doesn't stop to break down all of what this system is and how it works (he does do this in other places, including REVOLUTION #82-84: "The system in this country is not 'democracy'," REVOLUTION #38: "'Anti-Capitalist'—But Don’t Know What Capitalism Is," and more).
But here he applies this deeper, scientific understanding.
In a really living way, BA shows the underlying and interconnected dynamics of this system, the different elements of the soil that has given rise to this fascism. He's showing how the big changes in the economic foundation of capitalism-imperialism have influenced and been influenced by the changes in the relations between genders, races, and other sections of people. BA shows how all that has influenced and been influenced by the political struggles waged by people against different forms of oppression and injustice. And BA shows how again, all that has influenced and been influenced by the thinking and ideology of whole groupings of people. There is a material foundation for all this in the system of capitalism-imperialism, but it's not a one-way street or some kind of mechanical process, it's a dynamic.
This extremely dynamic and thoroughly scientific understanding of how politics and people's thinking relate to the underlying economic system is actually part of the breakthroughs in the new communism that BA has forged. In this piece, BA doesn't stop to define all these things. But he's applying this scientific method to this complex reality, breaking things down, and familiarizing people with how to make sense of the way society works even beyond the particular questions he is taking up in this message.
BA also shows how things evolved historically to the point we're in now—because that history shapes the ground we're standing on. And BA pulls the lens back to look at things on a global scale—how what is going on in the world affects things here (and vice versa). Again, as he does all this, he is not only helping the listeners make sense of what we are facing right now, he is training us all to look at the world more as it really is all the time. Think about how different those methods are from just looking at your own backyard, or personal experience or even just what happened last month.
By repeated exposure, and continuing to dig into the method in these social media messages, people can learn to do the same thing that BA is doing. Again, not all at once, but through the "cumulative process."
Again, in the Interview, BA says that the purpose of his social media is:
...to get more people to become critical thinkers and revolutionaries on that basis. It’s very important that amidst all the noise out there that this break through, reach people and get people themselves involved in struggling over what’s being said in these social media messages. Is it true? What if it is true, what are the implications of that? How do we understand this? What’s the method that’s being used to go after the different aspects of reality that are being engaged and analyzed? It’s very important with all the noise out there and all the distraction out there that keeps people numbed and worse, to try to break through that and rally people to the orientation of really engaging deeply with the world and what needs to be done about changing it in a positive way.
Consistently following, and digging into @BobAvakianOfficial together with others is working to change not just what people think, but how they think. This is why BA's social media messages should be at the heart of how the revcoms are training ourselves—as well as working with, and recruiting, forces for revolution! And the form of these are such that you can listen to them together in a car on your way somewhere... after being in the streets during the day, you can come back together and listen and discuss over dinner... Have weekly listening sessions and discuss. On the march. While we're taking up this historic battle to actually drive this fascist regime from power, and doing so as part of working to get rid of the system that's given rise to this fascism, people can be steeping themselves in, grappling with, and applying this scientific method. In fact, there is no voice that is so consistently and scientifically providing the understanding and leadership necessary to wage this fight in a way that unites all who can be united and really has a chance at winning than that of BA, even as he is also doing much more than providing leadership to the fight against fascism.
Lastly, on the basis of this scientific method, what BA models is an orientation of being on fire to take on everything that is standing in the way of the masses of people taking up the ever-more conscious fight not just for their own emancipation but for the emancipation of humanity as a whole. BA doesn't apologize for telling people what they need to hear because he knows that the horrible oppression and the backwards ways of thinking that this system puts on people is completely unnecessary—so he is willing and eager to take the responsibility to fight to be rid of all this. We need to really appreciate how fortunate we and the masses of people are to have a leader like this—and we need to take up the same method in going out and fighting to bring his voice and the understanding he is bringing out to millions.
I'll close out here with a quote from BA's first social media message which cuts to the heart of this challenge:
...for any of you “woke” posers and hustlers out there: don’t even bother with that nonsense about “who are you” to say all this. I’ll tell you who I am: I am someone who is heart and soul, hardcore serious about a revolution where people can get all the way free—someone with a scientific understanding of the need, and the possibility, for this revolution. As serious as this is, I don’t have time, and we don’t have time, for any of this pitiful, going-nowhere-good garbage about who has a right to say this or that. Everyone has the right, and the responsibility, to learn the truth, and to speak the truth, especially about truly life and death matters, dealing with the whole situation and the whole future of humanity—and everyone has the right and the responsibility to act on that truth.
