If you talked to me for more than five seconds about my topic of interest or beliefs at all, there are certain phrases I use that might sound weird or offputting if you don't have any previous knowledge. The Lei Feng stuff sounds like a joke but I find him extremely meaningful regardless. For those unaware, Lei Feng was a random Chinese low ranking soldier in the People's Military during the great days of the Great Honorable Peasant Reformist Mao Tsetung. During his actual life, the non myth parts, we know very little about his actions, his role in the military, his relation to our Great Honorable Eternal Leader Forever, my hero in human flesh, Mao Zedong. I'm still unaware of the connection between the two but whatever it was, it must have been intimate to some degree. Or at least that's how I choose to imagine it. I see Lei Feng and Mao Zedong's relationship as a king in need of a great knight, but due to how many insane implementations our Great Visionary put at once (look, I may use fancy terms for writing effect, but even I agree with Deng's famous ratio about how much Mao was right lets be real), things were moving too fast. People were dying en masse beccause of implementations Mao put on that would ultimately pay off but resulted in mass starvations and mass dyings, cannibalism and atrocities on a massive scale. This was a dark time for China. There really were no heroes relatable for the common man. Mao Tsetung was caught in an impossible position, as great Marxist leaders must appear larger than life.
As an aspiring, petty Marxist leader, or at least the owner of a Marxist theme discord server, I can relate to Mao and the people's struggle on two fronts. It's impossible for anyone to relate to a larger than life figure directly. We kind of need bridges that get us from human to God figure. Mao Tsetung attempted to fulfill the role of God due to misguided interpretations of Marx's views on religion. While we can disagree on the nature of reality and whatever else the fuck, realy, I don't really care, the importance of faith in the human condition cannot be stated. Why go on today when there is no hope at all for a brighter tomorrow? I know God is real and looks after me, and I don't need a bunch of snarky assholes from both sides of the aisle trying to push me into one camp or another regarding my faith. Liberation theology has played an important role in winning the hearts and minds of millions in the third world, and it takes a privileged White middle class academic asocial nerd to really not see the important of faith and good doctrine.
Good doctrine is the key for any belief system. CERTAIN RULES MUST ALWAYS BE UPHELD. These are the foundational rules. These fonudational rules should set up the pillars of a society for the rest of it, not just sprung into a rough patchwork job like in America, where we make stuff up as we go along. Good doctrine is what seperates us from the Anarchists, good hearts but no action. Good doctrine leads to good action. Regarding the anarchists, we can debate logistics of the government system and fight and kill each other later and I'm more than looking forward to the day to die for my beliefs as a righteous paragon of hope and God's love. BUT. They have something that we in the ML community do not have: unity. How many times have I joined a server as a Maoist and been called out by Trotskyists? Why does any of this even matter? It never made much sense to me. WE ARE ALL MARXISTS! Such is the importance of good doctrine. Doctrine must be resolute and concise, easiest for even the simplest and dullest among any audience to understand, in order for it to be impactful. The warnings against violating doctrine must be dire. The Bible pulls this off excellently, with Paul rapidly rattling off punishments for behaviors that he doesn't believe the Church should reward. Whether you agree with him our not, Paul was completely right about having to establish these things early to avoid a whole lot of confusion now, hence the liberalisation and collapse of the American church system.
America has no church. The only options for religion, for the average working class citizen, seem to be atheism or Christianity that somehow became embedded in hate, bigotry, and fascism. Those with faith in God and a good heart have no place to go, so it was always my aspiration to provide them one. I view it as my duty as a leftist, and my duty as a woman of God, to help others with their problems no matter what if they ask in order to win them over. The parallels in recruiting for leftism and Christianity can be usefully synergized when trying to recruit people of either, but not both, for our cause. We must prove that Christians can do meaningful work on the left without being reduced to "o im christian but i loooooooove fags sorry about Jesus!" I will never apologize or explain a thing that is in the Bible to anyone. It says what it says. Either accept it or don't. I'm bisexual and Christian and always have been and never saw much of a issue with that, really. Too many queer youth get caught up in self hatred that I tell them to just accept themselves and that God loves them either way. I have no way of knowing that empiraclly, but it is faith and God's own action that has demonstrated that he loves us disgusting faggot trannies too. Sorry, evangelicucks! Marx was a prophet of God too! Deal with it! Evangelicals really seem to believe that the line of prophecy directly ended at Jesus and don't bother really thinking about the verse about seeking and finding.
Faith is a game of seeking and finding. Knocking and answering. I think of that verse constantly. Faith in anything is. Faith in something greater than yourself will change your life. I was a hopeless alcoholic for years and if it weren't for experiencing God's love and the beautiful, religious anarchist mutual aid group that was Alcoholics Anonymous, I would surely be dead. And yes, I know, sober peeps, no outside politics, but I'm talking about the structure of the organization, not the beliefs of those within the organization. And there's something about that structure for human things like this that's really beautiful, everyone sharing the same belief with no central leader. Of course this is unsustainable on a national scale but on a human one, it teaches us how to connect with each other better. I wish everyone was an alcoholic so they'd have to go through what I went to in order to truly feel God's love, but it's not a requirement. I feel like it just hits you harder when you know the gift of desperation that our friend substance abuse is happy to provide. But we never have to be alone, comrades. We have God for our big problems, and brother Lei Feng for our human ones. Examine how humans become symbols throughout history repeatedly just for changing other people's lives. Christ was a healer, buddha was a wise man, and Brother Lei Feng was, according to all records saved within communist china, and the youtube comments, somehow the CCP's Ideal Hero without actually serving in a battle.
Lei Feng is a character with a heart full of love who helps the young and old. Lei Feng is gentle and patient with others. Lei Feng is slow to anger with his comrades and fast to defend good doctrine and good values for the betterment of his family, his military unit, his village, his society, his nation, his people, and the world in that order. We have to better all the people in our lives whether we like all of them or not. Lei Feng was a soldier during the most deadly political shift in history. While many of Mao's decisions ultimately turned out correct, the immediate human toll was devastating in the 60s and 70s. In order to fix a deeply sick society, there will always be a 20 year rough phase we will be remembered by with the rest of our legacy smeared by our imperialist and fascist enemies. Stalin saved the west from fascism but is remembered from dealing with his political opponents ruthlessly. Mao lifted billions of Chinese from poverty and doubled the population within his lifetime, but is remembered for all of his missteps instead of his many great ideas. And let's not even get started on what happened to the Kims. Kim Il Sung was a genius, a hero, a visionary, and so are his descendants, don't get me wrong. North Korea is a great personal inspiration to me to always stand up to bullies, even if they seem scarier and bigger. If you play your cards right, if your values are good and you have the right people both leading and within every rank of your society, you can easily survive anything. That applies to life and keeping half of a peninsula socialist with the entire world pointing guns at your head.
Modest and prudent, willing to suffer hardship, and dedicated to the service of the people
We must look to God for our personal problems, and our comrades among us who remind us of Lei Feng's heroic example for our human and relationship issues. Even if we know Lei Feng didn't exist, who are we to judge him? This was a random young soldier, out of millions who perished during Mao's many, in hindsight, shortsighted, experimental 5 year plans in a tragic accident that was nobody's fault. But Lei Feng was so loved, and his character was so noble, that he became the leading non Mao hero in China for decades. Mao Zedong saw to it that Lei Feng became an untouchable character for us proletariats to aspire to be, and perhaps this is Mao's greatest impact on me. I am forever admiring my comrade's good examples and aspiring to learn from them, and I can only pray to Christ to make me a better leftist they do the same for me. Brother Lei Feng is essentially a religious myth creation for a world doomed to be secular. I'd be fascinated if you guys have any larger than life heroes whose good examples you constantly look up to. Paul Bunyun, Lei Feng, Jesus Christ. Believe in something for the love of God. <3
I know God is real and looks after me, and I don't need a bunch of snarky assholes from both sides of the aisle trying to push me into one camp or another regarding my faith.