#5

#5

The praxis of the transition to socialism has the apporpriate form of assuming the terrain of the historical, it does not abandon the praxis of ideas that recognize the historical subject of the proletariat. “{T}he crucial character of the transition to socialism is not that it is a change in the economic base but that it is a revolutionary change in the relation of base to superstructure.”¹

Charles R. Smith, writing to us from 1974, explains the nature of this superstructure, that it is the “socialist ... {l}iterature and art ... which serves {the economic} base{.}”² State communism in China, from the time when Citizen Smith writes, had the bureaucratic agency, the New China News Agency, to mediate its spectacle's transmission. Where state communism is primarily concerned with propaganda versus censorship, Kapitalismo-sozjietie is concerned with the mediation of consumption. 'This is what you shouldn't consume,' says the spectacle of mediation in its red beret, whilst, 'this is what you shall consume,' says the spectacle of mediation in its blue necktie.

Citizen Smith tells us: “the People's Daily and Red Flag Magazine, the party's theoretical journal ... {led a} criticism campaign against the ancient sage Confucius,” proving that the censorship of art in the communist state of China had reached the same proportions as Plato's republic. The question of art toeing the party line was raised by Chu Lan, “believed to be the pseudonym of an important party official ... with particular emphasis on who should be portrayed as heroes.” What is feared by these iconoclasts? It is the “omnipotence of simulacra ... and the destructive, annihilating truth that they allow to appear – from this came their urge to destroy the images.”³ Chairman Mao replaces Confucius in the temple for the sole purpose of changing the canon.

Citizen Smith reports Chu Lan as saying that the literature and art of state communism, which form part of the superstructure of state communism, are not in harmony with the socialist economic base they serve. Could the same be said for Kapitalismo-sozjietie? What is its harmony? T.V. Tele-visual, talking virtually. Division and separation, universally. Universally: digitally.

1MacIntyre, cited in Blackledge, P. (2005) “Freedom, Desire and Revolution.” History of Political Thought, Vol. 26, No. 4; p.704.

2Smith, C. R. (1974) “Chinese Art Doesn't Toe The Party Line.” Ludington Daily News, Sep. 17.

3Baudrillard, J. (1994) Simulacra & Simulation. Trans. Sheila Faria Glaser. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press; p.4.

©Elijah Nathaniel James.