Roland Boer's Blog, page 48

And global leadership passes to … China

What an amazing week.

Between Tuesday and Friday, 17 and 20 January, the world shifted. On Tuesday, Xi Jinping addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, while on Friday Donald Trump became president of the United States.

Their two speeches said it all: in one, putting people first, focusing on economic wellbeing for all, stressing the need for international cooperation, dealing with major problems collectively, and the need for a recalibration of global governance; in the othe...

One of my favourite Chinese sayings

宁静致远：ningjing zhiyuan

A quiet life enables one to accomplish something lasting.

Or: tranquility yields transcendence

What do a naked pubescent boy, Trump and Putin have in common?

They all represent types of democracy.

Ancient Greek democracy (where it existed) worked as follows. A pubescent boy would stand naked in the middle of the assembly. If the other men could see evidence of puberty, then the boy was deemed to be a man and admitted to the assembly. Needless to say, such Greek democracy was limited to adult males who were not slaves or foreigners.

Donald Trump is an excellent example of liberal or bourgeois democracy. This type arose in Europe after the French re...

Could Stalin think?

Occasionally I come across the comment that the greatest offence of my Stalin project is that I assume that Stalin could actually think. It may be surprising to some, but many deny him the ability to think, let alone think dialectically. Was he not the one who was a novice at theory, mocked by his comrades for his faltering efforts?Was he not a cunning political operator at best, a woeful destroyer of Marxist theory at worst? Patient and careful attention to his works suggests otherwise. It i...

Out in the bush: Like breathing air and drinking water

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Trailer for Chinese Marxism online MOOC (first version)

This course, ‘From Mao to Now’, will be kicking off some time in the new year. All the filming, on site in China and in the studio in Newcastle, has been completed, so now it is up the editing and production people. Here is an early version of the introductory trailer.

The role of criticism in China

While doing the final (studio) filming for the MOOC on Chinese Marxism, we got talking about the role of criticism in relation to socialist democracy. The widespread and mistaken international image is that criticism is ruthlessly censored in China.

This is far from the case. In fact, three points are worth noting:

The long socialist tradition of criticism and self-criticism, which the Chinese both inherit and to which they add their own cultural approach. As my Chinese friends tell me, ‘we...

The elephant in the room over Russian hacking in the US election

For some perverse reason, I am thoroughly enjoying the finger-pointing and angst over supposed Russian hacking during the recent US election campaign. The fact that the Democrats are sore losers is the least interesting item here. And ludicrous is the claim that it undermines the ‘integrity’ of the US version of bourgeois democracy, which is totally stuffed anyway. But somehow the most obvious point – our friend, the elephant – is that the United States has made it an almost daily routine to...

My doctor has finally retired – at almost 95 years old

For quite some years now I have been seeing a great doctor, Neville Rothfield. From time to time, I have heard confirmations about his age, although I never actually dared to ask him directly. I knew all along that he was pretty experienced – I could always tell when he examined me. But we would also have wonderful conversations about almost everything, since he has a keen interest in the world.

So today he finally retired, at almost 95 years old. Yes, a nonagenarian has been my doctor! He be...

More on a socialist approach to human rights

And while we are on the topic, it may be worth pondering the following reflections – from you know who – on the 1936 soviet constitution relating to human rights. Again, we find that the underlying and primary right is to economic wellbeing:

Lastly, there is still one more specific feature of the draft of the new Constitution. Bourgeois constitutions usually confine themselves to stating the formal rights of citizens, without bothering about the conditions for the exercise of these rights, ab...