The MoonBlogs seem to be touting this guy Avakian as their new spiritual leader (sounds a little like Kevorkian to me). Looks like he's putting out a new book.

Bob Avakian has devoted his life to the one ideology that he believes holds the promise of massively releasing human freedom and dignity. The ideology is communism.

Here we go again ...

As if Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Chirac, the Clintons, Fonda, and Kerry weren't enough ...

... Avakian sounds a high, sustained cry for complete social transformation almost as if he were the trumpet of Lenin himself.

Thank God Rocker's trumpet is louder, clearer, and more far-reaching. Thank God (and my Dad for the lessons).

It's as if democratic capitalism's triumph in the 20th century was history's biggest mistake, a tragic wrong turn from the revolutionary road marked out by Lenin in the Russia of 1917 after the writings of Marx and by Mao in the China of the 1950s and 60s. Unswervingly, Avakian holds that road and is esteemed by fellow revolutionaries as the marathon man of the international anti-imperialist struggle.

Make that history's biggest success story, during which millions lifted themselves out of poverty and brought unprecedented success to their families and unprecedented prosperity to their children. This was so much the case that the opponents of capitalism had to lie about it just to get people's opinion in their favor. Thank God the majority didn't go along. Thank God (and my Dad for the education).

No word on how advocating the same system as Soviet Russia, North VietNam, North Korea, Saddam Hussein, Nazi Germany and others would make this guy an "anti-imperialist".

Avakian ... makes an unqualified case for Marxism-Leninism as a fertile thought system that's as alive now as it was when the two revolutionary masterminds created it to answer what they saw as capitalism's fundamental inhumanity.

Fundamental inhumanity. Isn't that a cute thought? Oppress people, impoverish people, and force them to live that way (if you let them live), and that is supposed to be better than the prosperity and freedom of a capitalist system. Thank God it never caught on in America on any larger scale than it has. Thank God (and the Founders for a Constitution that protects our freedom).

More evolutionary than revolutionary, his nondogmatic communism tolerates contradiction, welcomes dissent and demands the participation of artists and intellectuals in creating a classless society.

As if any of the aforementioned communist regimes would have welcomed dissent or a classless society. You can't have successful communism if people are allowed to speak out against it. Then again, you can't have successful communism ... it's been proven time and again.

Our American society is as classless as it gets. Everyone has the same opportunity to succeed. All you have to do is get off your sorry ass and make it happen. Thank God for upward mobility. Thank God (and President Reagan for bringing back a climate that maximizes it).

"Marxism is not a scripture, it's not a religious dogma," Avakian writes. "It's a scientific approach to reality."

Not a scripture or religious dogma. Thank God for THAT. Thank God (and Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI for standing tall against communism and in favor of Christianity).

The way these people seem to want to destroy Christianity, maybe he's right about that, but a SCIENTIFIC approach to REALITY? Cut me a break. Communism is as scientific as taking a shit. Beyond the biology, there's not much there but disgusting waste. And the reality of the world is that there is no perfect system anywhere, but so far no one has come up with anything better than pure unfettered CAPITALISM. Thank God for that. Thank God (and the pilgrims at Plymouth Colony for helping us discover this).

... his representatives say he wants the book to contribute to a renewed dialogue about Marxism and political theory in general.

OK ... The book comes out May 6. Here is all the dialogue anyone needs:

Communism, fascism, socialism (all the same thing with different names) and whatever other name you want to sell this snake oil under has been tried again and again and again for the better part of 400 years or more. Just because a couple of 19th century angry white guys in what is now Germany come around and give it a name doesn't change it one bit. Where it hasn't already failed, it is failing dismally, and will rightly find its place on the scrap heap of history (a little Ronaldus Magnus lingo there).

Dialogue over. Thank God (and Bill Gates for the "X" button). No need to even bother reading the rest of the review at this point. I doubt there will be anything more compelling than that.

"If the bourgeoisie and its political representatives can uphold people like Madison and Jefferson," he writes, "then the proletariat and its vanguard forces can and should uphold Stalin, in an overall sense and with historical perspective."

OK OK ... I stand corrected. If this isn't the strongest statement burying this guy's point of view, I don't know what is.

F.E.T.E.

RWR