A question many Marxists, specifically Leninists, are asked today is the legacy of Stalin. The purpose of this text should be for those curious about socialism and a good case for those familiar with it all already.
For those new and curious, consider a hypothetical: A chicken coop elects the top rooster, who fights against foxes who try to steal their eggs. Would the fox den tell the truth about him? Would chickens taught by foxes know of the chicken liberator truthfully? The answer is obviously no, but let it also be the case that the rooster may do horrendous things while defending his coop, he may steal feed or mismanage or punish too severely. Now, if a man liberated his country from the Bourgeoisie, would you know the truth about it? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean we should spend our time defending him. We should instead spend our time trying to fight off foxes from our coop, not defending a 100 year old rooster from across the sea.
For seasoned Marxians, was Stalin evil? It doesn’t really matter if he was, I could argue Stalin is lied about by his detractors, or I could argue he was bad but that’s just because of X, Y or Z. Though studying history is important, learn from our mistakes, we want to help America in the 21st century, not Asia in the 20th. Arguing over the legacy of a 100 year old Georgian is useless for our cause, it helps no one and gets us nowhere. You will convince few people that a person they’ve beenconditioned to hate was good, it is a waste of time, which is a very valuable thing.
If socialism is the cure to the disease of capitalism then we must acknowledge that the nature of the disease has changed, like any virus that wishes to survive. While we can and should learn from the past, whether Stalin’s vaccine worked or not it will not work against our current ailment.
In summary,
To those new: Consider Stalin and our past, but we are here to help, not worship old Georgian men.
To seasoned Marxists: Stop arguing about history, you live now and here to help now.
The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.
~Karl Marx
