A lot of IMF “warnings” can be summarised as:

• you are not / may not be able to pay off the privatised national debt in the timely manner the private banks have requested

• solution is to raid public wealth even more to pay off this debt

• let’s give you some funds to help with you that in the form of more privatised debt; if you are from the global south then it is your wealth we have exploited from you which we are lending back to you as a loan with interest to be paid along with some structural adjusments to help plunder your country even more. We can help you by installing our own agents in your governing bodies and if you resist our help we can encourage you with some gunboat diplomacy, sanctioning and coups.

• if you are from the imperialist core then we advise on austerity while we help you plunder the global south some more in the interim

Thank you for posting the translation.

At no point does he explain:

• how he will defend the “revolution”
• how further coups will be prevented
• how he is going to meaningfully improve democracy if he is concerned the poor only get a democratic voice every few years during election season
• how he will prevent the imperialist forces and the bourgoisie dictating economic policy

If he doesn’t think one needs to read Marx or learn from Castro, Mao or Lenin then he giving the awful impression that he does not have a viable alternative. If one does not have an understanding of the status quo then how will one fight it? How will they understand lessons of the past of those who did fight it and was successful if they do not learn from them? Where is this new theory of successful political economic development that apparently supercedes Marx scientifically?

Critical support indeed.

Without understanding dialectical and historical materialism, without developing a socialist vanguard and without democratic centralism it feels like the seeds for capitulating towards fascism.

Do you know any literature you could recommend please - if possible - that explores what you said? (Well before I came across ML I have long thought the flipside of the coin you are mentioning; that capitalism brings out the worst in society, the most sociopathic and malignant characteristics of what we consider the human condition is what is amplified, promoted and successful)

You may have already done this; to break down what one means by “we” / “us” / “american” that unless he is part of the bourgoisie (at which point one may want to invest time elsewhere to overthrow the dictatorship) that there are material differences between himself and those who dictate the policies of empire?

There’s only so much one can do though if one is in the imperial core especially if one’s father is reasonably well off. Unfortunately there are material benefits of the empire for the imperial core labour aristocrats and petite-bourgoise even if they are crumbs.

Finding common grounds or points of agreement is often the path to extrapolate towards reconciliation and exploration of meaningful enlightenment without capitulation.

Please make sure you are taking care of your mental health; this goes for all of us.

It’s familiar; most of us come from backgrounds of bourgois indoctrination. If he likes literature may be introduce Frantz Fanon :)

Thanks for sharing; glad to see bourgois fear in a socialist country.

So much cope and weasel words in a typical liberal article.

“The large number of rich Chinese heading elsewhere could add to the strain on the nation’s fragile economy”

Fragile? Based on what?

Capital flight controls appear to be an alien concept to these kind of esteemed journalists (nevermind the labour theory of value).

I am also seeing a global theme with a lot of non-western bourgoisie there appears to be an internalised inferiority complex where the ideal is to be some sort of honorary aryan.

It’s probably worthwhile reading some Frantz Fanon at this stage to soothe the soul.

/edits: grammar/clarity

Feels like this is a good time to post some of Hakim’s primers for those who are interested/curious:

What if North Korea was a democracy? (Starts at 22 seconds if you want to skip the intro, approx 30 min; can watch in 2x speed if so inclined) https://youtu.be/1f4rKycK6Gg

Why is North Korea so weird? (Approx 12 min long) https://youtu.be/EzDhqXuELjo

What is the deal with defectors? (Again approx 12 min long) https://youtu.be/vBwZjBMbsK0

=====

Tangent articles

On Brainwashing (1st: 17 min, 2nd: 77 min):

• https://redsails.org/brainwashing/
• https://redsails.org/masses-elites-and-rebels/

Feels like a “feature not a bug” of orientalism… which reminds me of another book on my long list to read (Edward Said).

You are right in that I should clarify with regards to limited resources; I mean developed infrastructure (both “soft” and hard eg people and buildings) in the context of an underdeveloped country like India and the uneven development in wealthier capitalist countries taken as a whole.

Furthermore we should also consider a privatised system can include “public” infrastructure systems in a capitalist country (there are myriad ways one could analyse this from the financialisation of tuition fees to the contracting out of education materials and infrastructure that is overwhelmingly dictated by the private sector).

My argument is not really for or against entrance exams (this should be determined through peer reviewed research and may be discipline specific) but there are other loci of focus that are of greater importance to avoid higher education just reflecting wealth demographics and bourgoisie sensibilities including the artificial scarcity of higher paid labour.

I also tend to lean towards Paolo Friere’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed on a more enlightened path for education.

Addendum: I should add that I actually agree with your initial premise that medical schools should have neither entrance exams nor lower degrees; there are places in the world (geographical/historical) where this is/was the reality. However, we should work towards overthrowing the systems that generate the constraints that you have outlined. We shouldn’t just treat the injury of a fallen patient but also question why the patient collapsed in the first place.

I agree current systems disproportionally favour wealth over merit but given limited resources how would one filter candidates efficiently to select those truly motivated and disciplined to study? If one approaches the problem by eliminating privatisation of education you can then work towards a more meritocratic system with or without entrance exams?

I wonder how the sangh will spin this to blame “urban naxalites” (if they do).

“Truly a terrible time to be an Indian right now.”

I think it was Amartya Sen who claimed an excess of 2.5 million deaths per year since formal end of colonisation compared to China - even taking into account liberal “accounting” of deaths (things like unborn children etc). Unfortunately for the majority it has been a terrible time to be an Indian for about the past few centuries though obviously the fascist hindutva for the past decade has not helped. (Someone with more knowledge please correct this figure if inaccurate)

It feels like at this stage if they could have then they already would have by now given the massive military infrastructure losses in northern palestine. They appear to be doing their best impression of a barking dog with no bite. Like a lot of western armies these day they appear to be better at killing civilians and ethnic cleansing as opposed to fighting other militaries.

/please take this layman armchair analysis with a pinch of salt