So many differing opinions. This has all been done before, but now people have to put on this mask of appearance, as if they can just make the final push towards greatness for their revolutionary cause- but yet capitalism remains the most effective means to abundance and thus national power- nations which the races thereof interact on the world stage, and thusly the effects of that, coupled with rampant neoliberalism which we see today, are in effect, though all the contradictions have been set- it's almost like Mao was foreseeing something, afterall- but did he foresee that capitalism would be so useful?
Materialist dialectic, almost synonymous with Historical materialism, this is all based on the logic that Mao expanded on, that things essentially always change (the "Motive Force')...so China can adapt...seemingly, to me, the hurdles is not class warfare internally within nations, but instead economic reform & then recognizing the organ-body of the world's national hierarchy and structure, globally, without regressing to globalism and post-nationalism, which is just a socialist idea, and is a debated notion through and through, even within Marxist thought. It's contestable because if one believes in equality, vying for the World-Island, and considerations for socializing and centralizing on such a grandiose scale, would necessitate countervailing to the overall goal, seeing as by attempting to "revolve" the structure base (which I have worked out my own method of discernment for) you will have either decay of the civic body, or further uprisings (the same results for the Ethnostate, at least for most of the Western World- this doesn't preclude Fascist reactionary movements from cropping up though, exculpating no single causal factor in the poison of Socialismo), and why this is is because of the fact that peasants in certain other nations will have to fight against you, and thus no camaraderie can be found within movements- the aggregate statistics and mobility will always been regarded for the expansion of Socialist and Marxist movements (or Fascist movements, the selfsame), but it will never be completely inverse the "Conventional Superstructure", and there will always be warfare.
All of this stuff has been DEBATED and resolved already- "Three Worlds Theory"- the Bolsheviks- all the warning signs are there. You can see the effects in History (which doesn't repeat itself necessary- this concept is already contested- by Trotsky, if I remember correctly. But it does have it's Wake.)
It's funny how this notion of materialism and anti-NEGATIONISM has led to so much destruction, purges, warfare (although, some of the tactics, admirably concocted, fair play), and so much obvious mistakes (Mao's agricultural standard was higher than Lenin's but ultimately he Historically Contradicted himself, by trying to kill some quite necessitous birds.
It's funny how much the post-Great War (and the fin de siècle thinking before hand) had in common, and the revolutionaries and socialists, had in common with eachother; although outside of total wedlock, they nevertheless all tie into one another succinctly, the only outlier being Fascism. Nazism even, is a totally socialist concept, despite as far away from the Christian socialism and "Jewishness" they wanted to go, in their hearts and minds, the Pagan German people were still a socialist anti-capitalist group, and thus had to bedraggle the hegemon and get canned- see, centralization in any capacity, is no good- leads to problems, historical problems, heh heh- and then again, even when turned religion, the most innocent of Socialismo, when thriving, can turn into uprisings of nationalism (due to a Fascistic spirit), or turn to "right-thinking" and "contradictory" notions in governance, towards the ends of the proletariat's sufficiency and satisfaction- thus leading to further war, akin to the Ethnostate.
There is room for critique of capitalism and society...one form it takes is in the form of Liberalism (Classical) and Libertarianism.
>The problem with figuring it out is in trying to measure cumulative suffering and degradation against the more rapid kind produced in active warfare. Maybe you have a number-free metric that could help us all decide?
It's a natural progression. People want back to, say, Africa, for example, they should go there, you know what I'd say, too, I'd say who could use some Communism right now would be Africa, but I'd wager they won't listen to me or anyone else when I tell them about PLANNING....and they will eventually run into 'Fascism', which'll be fine anyway, I mean, in the long run, long as no one starts a nuclear war and launches one towards me.
But in terms of the rest of the world, it's always conforming to capitalistic standards, in the long run. China > Capitalism. Trying to buy up large property assets and estates in the US...you have Russia playing catch up, Germany, they only see one way, that is capitalize on THEIR PEOPLE (and immigrants, too, of course!) in an attrition fucking bizarre! considering that people mostly approve of it all, for some reason...the rest of the EU dealing with the aftermath...and also, yes, they have decided to socialize. Fine and dandy. Give it...20 years...see the next big recession! because they will have to liquidate to pay up, or pass the buck onto their populace...which is happening in the US, right now, as well. Much worse than that, actually, because Europe can absquatulate all it wants, they'll be bought back with subsidizing (though this will result in INGSOC type Socialism, a very BAD thing). But the US can't even afford that. It's destined to fall into anarchy if this "revolutionary" mindset keeps up, and it'll be no less warfare, from there on out, than ever; that's certain.
Is History on repeat, or are we simply just in it's wake? How could we really tell?