Friday, November 21, 2008
What would Lenin say about Obama's Victory....
“Change has come to America.” This has been the message that the media has promoted and associated Barack Obama’s victory with; a message that Vladimir Lenin would too be proud to announce. In this short essay I will discuss what Lenin tell/suggest Obama after his winning presidential election.....
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Essay:
“Change has come to America.” This has been the message that the media has promoted and associated Barack Obama’s victory with; a message that Vladimir Lenin would too be proud to announce. Lenin would agree that change is something are society is seriously in need of and that Barrack Obama’s win is not only crucial but essential to create such a change. The society as a whole has been mesmerized by Obama's speeches and have come to believe that the changes he foresees will be beneficial to them and our country, Lenin’s ideas promised the same. Both men have acquired sympathy for the working class (the proletariat) and with it a belief that the ultimate interests of the working class match those of humanity in general." With this in mind, Lenin would advice Obama to leave his position of power and move his efforts towards Socialism, paving the way for a future communistic regime. Lenin would advice Obama that the capitalist state machinery has to be "smashed", by a means of revolution. The proletarian could only achieve such an uprising though the efforts of a vanguard party composed of professional revolutionaries. With such a party, tactical and ideological decisions could be preformed in order to successfully reach a revolutionary consciousness. We must destroy the relationship between the bourgeoisie and the state institutions, disconnecting the “thousand threads” that join them. Lenin will instruct Obama to join the constructed group of professional revolutionaries and orchestrate the overthrow of the government by force, seizing power on behalf of the working class and later implementing a dictatorship of the proletarian. Due to the “false consciousness” that the bourgeoisie have instilled on the working class, the party will use the powers of the government to educate the new risen class. Ideologies like religion and nationalism will seize to be threat. “Democracy for the vast majority of the people, and suppression by force,” this is the change that democracy will undergo…all in order to transition from capitalism to communism. Lenin will determinately make Obama see that “the leeches, parasites and blood suckers of the bourgeoisie have to be terminated.”
In response to Lenin and his suggested advice for Obama, I believe that although some of his statements are valid and reachable, I don’t believe that that the path Lenin and his followers foresaw is the right path America is heading for. The U.S is in need of change, there is no denying it, but I think its future involves other things, not socialism, not communism. If Lenin’s plan were to be implemented, I worry that the foundation the U.S is too weak to endure such a drastic change. I question. If like Lenin says, we do need a vanguard party to begin such a transformation in order to commence a successful revolution, who guarantees us that this new form of power, these new “professional revolutionaries” will be willing to step down once the revolution begins and the communist ideology is ready to be implemented into the new society? Better who yet who will choose these individuals? Will they resign their new status willingly or will force be involved? As a country WE ARE ready for change, I believe this is why Obama and his promises to the people were so popular; the destination of how to obtain it however, I still believe is in question
I agree with the parallel drawn between Obama and Lenin regarding the concept of 'change,' especially with American capitalist machinery. Both have played on the interests and sentiments of the working class in their efforts to bring about a new form of government.
Lenin perceived the East to have a weak civil society and therefore authorized a dictatorship without consent. Gramsci suggests not that the "foundation of the U.S. is too weak" but that our form of advanced capitalism encompasses a dense civil society. Like Bernstein, Gramsci believes capitalism evolves into socialism. If we are not headed towards socialism or communism, are we just steering towards another form of advanced or organized capitalism? Lenin also expressed uncertainty in regards to the direction society would be headed after the D of P. Perhaps Lenin and Obama's ultimate goals may coincide if placed in the context of Gramsci's theory of the West having a dense civil society exercising both force and consent.
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