Decoding Da Dubya Code

<div class="intro"> <p><strong>Revolutionaries, reporters and film crews assembled on Friday morning for a "Press Conference and Anti-Inaugural Banquet." It was held near Howard University at Café Manowaj, a cool and funky hang-out run by a crew of radical South Africans. Steaming breakfast dishes (named for people’s heroes and historical highpoints) soon appeared. Indymedia and RW reporters tended to order Amandla eggs. The Fox-5 TV guy was all over the Paris Commune French Toast. (His footage of our red-flag-filled cowboy-hat stomping made the 5 o’clock news that night.)</strong></p> </div> <p><strong>Sunsara Taylor:</strong> Are there any born-agains in the house who are deep into biblical armageddon prophesies? No? In that case, I first need to first walk you all through my ‘Armageddon Crash Course for post-Enlightenment Thinkers’....</p> <p>At this very moment millions of people are being seduced into going for simple, good-versus-evil answers to the agonizing and growing complexities of the world. They are consumed with the coming Judgment Day, the return of Jesus, Armageddon, the Rapture.</p> <!--break-->   </p><h1>Decoding Da Dubya Code</h1><p /><p>  </p><p id="issueinfo"><cite>Revolutionary Worker #1266</cite>, January<br />  30, 2005, posted at rwor.org</p><p /><p>  </p><div class="intro"><br />    <p><strong>Revolutionaries, reporters and film crews assembled on<br />    Friday morning for a "Press Conference and Anti-Inaugural<br />    Banquet." It was held near Howard University at Café<br />    Manowaj, a cool and funky hang-out run by a crew of radical South<br />    Africans. Steaming breakfast dishes (named for people’s<br />    heroes and historical highpoints) soon appeared. Indymedia and RW<br />    reporters tended to order Amandla eggs. The Fox-5 TV guy was all<br />    over the Paris Commune French Toast. (His footage of our<br />    red-flag-filled cowboy-hat stomping made the 5 o’clock news<br />    that night.)</strong></p><br />  </div><p /><p>  </p><p><strong>Sunsara Taylor:</strong> Are there any born-agains in the<br />  house who are deep into biblical armageddon prophesies? No? In that<br />  case, I first need to first walk you all through my ‘Armageddon<br />  Crash Course for post-Enlightenment Thinkers’....</p><p /><p>  </p><p>At this very moment millions of people are being seduced into<br />  going for simple, good-versus-evil answers to the agonizing and<br />  growing complexities of the world. They are consumed with the coming<br />  Judgment Day, the return of Jesus, Armageddon, the Rapture.</p><p /><p>  </p><p>Here’s the <cite>Revelations</cite> scenario rolling around<br />  in their heads: First, Israel finds peace and then the Rapture<br />  happens. God calls up his true believers and all those who are pure<br />  of heart—those 12 years old or younger. Cars pile up in huge<br />  crashes on the freeways as drivers are called up to heaven, airplanes<br />  plummet to the ground as the true-believing pilots<br />  disappear—there are black-outs and sheer havoc. The<br />  anti-christ, an internationalist talking world peace, rises through<br />  the United Nations. During the next seven terrible years of<br />  tribulation, punishment is meted out by a vengeful Jesus, the rivers<br />  will run six feet deep in blood, and people must be willing to fight<br />  and die for the Lord.</p><p /><p>  </p><p>Okay, that’s the mindset of a good section of Bush’s<br />  audience. And knowing that, his speech was deliberately loaded up<br />  with lots of coded "End Times" language fashioned by his<br />  hotshot evangelical speechwriter, Michael Gerson—all designed<br />  to send the Armageddon addicts into orbit.</p><p /><p>  </p><p>At the same time, the central thrust of Bush’s speech, and<br />  the clear message telegraphed to his imperial minders, cohorts and<br />  rivals—was an affirmation of the U.S. right and intention to<br />  rampage, to flex its "sole superpower" status and roll up<br />  the planet under its permanent domination (all cloaked in deceitful<br />  banalities: "The survival of liberty in our land increasingly<br />  depends on the success of liberty in other lands.")</p><p /><p>  </p><p><strong>Then Carl Dix and Sunsara Taylor took turns<br />  reading</strong></p><p /><p>  </p><h3>"The Communist Guide to the Top Ten Lies and Armageddon<br />  References in George Bush’s Inaugural Speech"</h3><p /><p>  </p><p><strong>Lie 10</strong></p><p /><p>  </p><p>Scientifically, the word FIRE refers to combustion. But in the<br />  Bible, fire refers to the wrathful punishment of a vengeful God. When<br />  Bush said <em>"a day of fire,"</em> he meant 9/11, which<br />  many Christian fascists believe is punishment for American’s<br />  turning their backs on Jesus.</p><p /><p>  </p><p>The reality is that 9/11 and the rise of the Islamic<br />  fundamentalists cannot be understood without Bob Avakian’s<br />  writings on the Enlightenment, the massive dislocations of<br />  globalization, and the loss of revolutionary China as a pole of<br />  attraction in the world.</p><p /><p>  </p><p><strong>Lie #9</strong></p><p /><p>  </p><p>Many people were confused to hear Bush talk so much about<br />  "freedom," some figured he was just straight-up lying.</p><p /><p>  </p><p>But when he says <em>"Because we have acted in the great<br />  liberating tradition of this country, tens of millions have achieved<br />  their freedom,"</em> Bush is actually (believe it or not)<br />  referring to the never-ending U.S. conquest of Iraq, and telling the<br />  world to expect more of the same and worse! His global mission of<br />  "spreading freedom" is nothing more than the freedom of<br />  U.S. empire to further dominate the world.</p><p /><p>  </p><p>Years ago, on Tom Snyder’s TV show, Bob Avakian pointed out<br />  that "If the exploiters are free to exploit, then the masses of<br />  people are not free to be free of that exploitation."</p><p /><p>  </p><p><strong>Lie #8</strong></p><p /><p>  </p><p>At the end of his speech, Bush speaks of <em>"liberty and the<br />  Author of Liberty."</em> The implication is that liberty is<br />  God’s will and its author is God.</p><p /><p>  </p><p>Mainly Bush uses "freedom" as a stand-in for global<br />  configuring—but his use of vocabulary also allows evangelicals<br />  to hear a message that literally <em>sanctifies</em> American attacks<br />  in the world.</p><p /><p>  </p><p>Listened to from this framework, the use of the word<br />  "freedom" 27 times and the use of "liberty" 15<br />  times give this global mission of George Bush a true crusader<br />  feel.</p><p /><p>  </p><p><strong>Lie #7</strong></p><p /><p>  </p><p>Bush said: "<em>From the day of our founding we have<br />  proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights and<br />  dignity and matchless value.</em>"</p><p /><p>  </p><p>This, about a country that dragged Africans to its shores in slave<br />  chains? This, about a country that carried out systematic genocide<br />  against the Native inhabitants?</p><p /><p>  </p><p>Did Condoleezza tutor him about this history? Does she know it<br />  herself?</p><p /><p>  </p><p>In contrast, Bob Avakian has recently written his memoir, <em>From<br />  Ike to Mao and Beyond,</em>about what he learned from Black<br />  classmates in an integrated high school during the 1950s and by<br />  getting to know leaders of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s. This<br />  played a critical role in his development as a revolutionary<br />  communist leader who has dug deeply into how revolution must and can<br />  uproot every last vestige of racism and national oppression.</p><p /><p>  </p><p><strong>Lie #6</strong></p><p /><p>  </p><p>Bush said in his speech: <em>"Americans, at our best, value<br />  the life we see in one another, and must always remember that even<br />  the unwanted have worth."</em></p><p /><p>  </p><p>Bush didn’t choose to speak openly about his plans to<br />  criminalize abortion and the doctors who perform them. But this<br />  deceitful talk of "valuing life," coupled with "the<br />  unwanted have worth" was clearly a set of codewords.</p><p /><p>  </p><p>The day after his reelection, he called up a newly elected senator<br />  who believes in legally executing abortion providers, and said,<br />  "It’s time to get the job done."</p><p /><p>  </p><p>Okay, in Bush’s twisted world, fetuses are holy persons and<br />  adult women are just incubators.</p><p /><p>  </p><p>The Revolutionary Communist Party says, "Break the chains!<br />  Unleash the fury of women as a mighty force for revolution!"</p><p /><p>  </p><p>In our new revolutionary society, women and men will develop new<br />  ways of relating with mutual respect and equality. And the impatience<br />  of women to tear up the old oppressive arrangements will actually be<br />  a positive factor that pushes the whole revolution forward until<br />  communism is achieved.</p><p /><p>  </p><p><strong>Lie #5</strong></p><p /><p>  </p><p>Bush said, <em>"Leaders of governments with long habits of<br />  control need to know: To serve your people you must learn to trust<br />  them."</em> Right. From the man who called the protests of<br />  millions worldwide against the Iraq invasion a "focus<br />  group."</p><p /><p>  </p><p>Bob Avakian doesn’t huddle with advisors trying to<br />  manipulate or deceive the people. His approach is to put<br />  contradictions in the hands of more and more people, including the<br />  biggest questions of how to make revolution and how to run a society<br />  that the masses would actually want to live in. He leads the people<br />  to understand these contradictions and to help solve them.</p><p /><p>  </p><p>He actually <em>does</em> trust the people and has confidence that<br />  with genuine communist leadership they can change the whole<br />  world.</p><p /><p>  </p><p><strong>Lie #4</strong></p><p /><p>  </p><p>Bush says, <em>"America’s vital interests and our<br />  deepest beliefs are now one."</em></p><p /><p>  </p><p>Bush is effectively saying he recognizes no separation between<br />  church and state.</p><p /><p>  </p><p>For example, Bush’s faith-based initiative: They are pulling<br />  millions of dollars in government funding out of secular social<br />  service programs and pouring it almost exclusively into Christian<br />  organizations.</p><p /><p>  </p><p><strong>Lie #3</strong></p><p /><p>  </p><p>Bush says, <em>"Rights must be more than the grudging<br />  concessions of dictators; they are secured by free dissent and the<br />  participation of the governed..."</em></p><p /><p>  </p><p>This, said at the most militarized inaugural address in history,<br />  where protesters were attacked, cordoned off, and even reactionary<br />  George Will said the whole affair looked like a banana republic under<br />  siege.</p><p /><p>  </p><p>Bob Avakian understands that the proletariat must hold firmly on<br />  to state power once it is achieved, that it is not worth holding onto<br />  if it doesn’t just tolerate dissent, but foster it. Because<br />  even truths that bring to light negative things about the<br />  revolutionary vanguard can become part of what we need to learn to<br />  move society forward.</p><p /><p>  </p><p><strong>Lie #2</strong></p><p /><p>  </p><p>We’re getting up there in our Top Ten, this is Number Two.<br />  We saved it till the end because it is such a BIG LIE. Throughout<br />  Bush’s speech dwells this HUGE LIE that has been with humanity<br />  for thousands of years, causing untold slaughter and suffering, the<br />  lie used by all of the biggest tyrants in the world. That lie is<br />  GOD.</p><p /><p>  </p><p>The Truth: GOD DOES NOT EXIST.</p><p /><p>  </p><p>Chairman Avakian has said it is time to quit praying to things<br />  that don’t exist and time to be liberating our minds and moving<br />  to end oppression the only way it can be done—by fighting<br />  it.</p><p /><p>  </p><p><em>Finally, let’s have a drumroll here for the Number One<br />  lie from Bush’s speech!</em></p><p /><p>  </p><p><strong>Lie #1</strong></p><p /><p>  </p><p>Bush said: <em>"After the shipwreck of<br />  communism..."</em></p><p /><p>  </p><p>It is now supposed to be an assumed and accepted fact that<br />  communism was a failure—and that any hopes of a radically<br />  different and liberated alternative to capitalism are a false<br />  hope.</p><p /><p>  </p><p>But, in fact, communism was no shipwreck!</p><p /><p>  </p><p>The actual history of socialist society puts to shame Bush’s<br />  mangling of the truth, and his smirking declaration that no society<br />  greater than the U.S. has ever existed. <em lang="fr" xml:lang="<br">  "fr">Au contraire!</em></p><p /><p>  </p><p>Bursting through the cracks of the 20th-century lumbering<br />  imperialist death machine, the workers and peasants in Russia in 1917<br />  and in China in 1949 made revolution and accomplished amazing things.<br />  They went from unspeakable poverty and misery to becoming the people<br />  who, for the first time in history, started to consciously transform<br />  society and themselves.</p><p /><p>  </p><p>During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, workers,<br />  peasants and students were called upon by Mao Tsetung to struggle to<br />  keep China on the road to a classless communist world. They<br />  criticized those leaders who were trying to take things back to the<br />  old society. They debated philosophy, political economy, and world<br />  affairs. They got involved in the running of factories, hospitals and<br />  schools.</p><p /><p>  </p><p>In the end, the communist revolutions of the Soviet Union and<br />  China were overturned. How should we sum this up?</p><p /><p>  </p><p>Bob Avakian looks at these socialist experiences of the last 100<br />  years, and sees a great start! But, he says, we can do much better<br />  and soar much higher.</p><p /><p>  </p><p>Standing on the accomplishments of these great chapters in human<br />  history, and fearlessly examining the grievous aspects of these<br />  revolutions, Bob Avakian has re-envisioned what it will take to get<br />  to a communist world, and even what that classless society could look<br />  like.</p><p /><p>  </p><p>Avakian’s approach combines the need for firm revolutionary<br />  leadership to hold onto power with involving more and more people in<br />  the process of exercising that power. It includes unleashing ferment,<br />  giving expression to the diversity in society as opposed to people<br />  being regimented and saluting an "official ideology." He is<br />  about moving society and the world to the point where there is no<br />  longer a need for a government of any kind; where the people<br />  consciously and voluntarily transform themselves and the world.</p><p /><p>  </p><p>For all the real and monumental dangers that Bush concentrates,<br />  the same global shifts and changes that are driving Bush to his<br />  extremes are also bringing the possibility of Bob Avakian’s<br />  liberating future more sharply into focus. These two futures are<br />  colliding. If people come to know about Bob Avakian and throw<br />  everything they have into this battle for the future (for indeed,<br />  everything is at stake!) then some day folks will look back and be<br />  able to speak with <em>profound truth</em> and <em>profound joy</em><br />  about the "shipwreck of capitalism."</p><p /><p>  </p><div class="footer"><br />    <hr /><p /><p>    </p><p>This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary<br />    Worker Online<br /><br />    <a href="<a%20href=">http://rwor.org</a>" title=<br />    "Revolutionary Worker">http://rwor.org</a /><br /><br />    Write: Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654<br /><br />    Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: 773-227-4497</p><br />  </div><br /><br /><br /><p />

<div class="intro"> <p><strong>Revolutionaries, reporters and film crews assembled on<br /> Friday morning for a "Press Conference and Anti-Inaugural<br /> Banquet." It was held near Howard University at Café<br /> Manowaj, a cool and funky hang-out run by a crew of radical South<br /> Africans. Steaming breakfast dishes (named for people’s<br /> heroes and historical highpoints) soon appeared. Indymedia and RW<br /> reporters tended to order Amandla eggs. The Fox-5 TV guy was all<br /> over the Paris Commune French Toast. (His footage of our<br /> red-flag-filled cowboy-hat stomping made the 5 o’clock news<br /> that night.)</strong></p> </div> <p><strong>Sunsara Taylor:</strong> Are there any born-agains in the<br /> house who are deep into biblical armageddon prophesies? No? In that<br /> case, I first need to first walk you all through my ‘Armageddon<br /> Crash Course for post-Enlightenment Thinkers’....</p> <p>At this very moment millions of people are being seduced into<br /> going for simple, good-versus-evil answers to the agonizing and<br /> growing complexities of the world. They are consumed with the coming<br /> Judgment Day, the return of Jesus, Armageddon, the Rapture.</p> <!--break--><p>  </p> <h1>Decoding Da Dubya Code</h1> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p id="issueinfo"><cite>Revolutionary Worker #1266</cite>, January<br />  30, 2005, posted at rwor.org</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <div class="intro">    <p><strong>Revolutionaries, reporters and film crews assembled on<br />    Friday morning for a "Press Conference and Anti-Inaugural<br />    Banquet." It was held near Howard University at Café<br />    Manowaj, a cool and funky hang-out run by a crew of radical South<br />    Africans. Steaming breakfast dishes (named for people’s<br />    heroes and historical highpoints) soon appeared. Indymedia and RW<br />    reporters tended to order Amandla eggs. The Fox-5 TV guy was all<br />    over the Paris Commune French Toast. (His footage of our<br />    red-flag-filled cowboy-hat stomping made the 5 o’clock news<br />    that night.)</strong></p> <p>  </p></div> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p><strong>Sunsara Taylor:</strong> Are there any born-agains in the<br />  house who are deep into biblical armageddon prophesies? No? In that<br />  case, I first need to first walk you all through my ‘Armageddon<br />  Crash Course for post-Enlightenment Thinkers’....</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>At this very moment millions of people are being seduced into<br />  going for simple, good-versus-evil answers to the agonizing and<br />  growing complexities of the world. They are consumed with the coming<br />  Judgment Day, the return of Jesus, Armageddon, the Rapture.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Here’s the <cite>Revelations</cite> scenario rolling around<br />  in their heads: First, Israel finds peace and then the Rapture<br />  happens. God calls up his true believers and all those who are pure<br />  of heart—those 12 years old or younger. Cars pile up in huge<br />  crashes on the freeways as drivers are called up to heaven, airplanes<br />  plummet to the ground as the true-believing pilots<br />  disappear—there are black-outs and sheer havoc. The<br />  anti-christ, an internationalist talking world peace, rises through<br />  the United Nations. During the next seven terrible years of<br />  tribulation, punishment is meted out by a vengeful Jesus, the rivers<br />  will run six feet deep in blood, and people must be willing to fight<br />  and die for the Lord.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Okay, that’s the mindset of a good section of Bush’s<br />  audience. And knowing that, his speech was deliberately loaded up<br />  with lots of coded "End Times" language fashioned by his<br />  hotshot evangelical speechwriter, Michael Gerson—all designed<br />  to send the Armageddon addicts into orbit.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>At the same time, the central thrust of Bush’s speech, and<br />  the clear message telegraphed to his imperial minders, cohorts and<br />  rivals—was an affirmation of the U.S. right and intention to<br />  rampage, to flex its "sole superpower" status and roll up<br />  the planet under its permanent domination (all cloaked in deceitful<br />  banalities: "The survival of liberty in our land increasingly<br />  depends on the success of liberty in other lands.")</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p><strong>Then Carl Dix and Sunsara Taylor took turns<br />  reading</strong></p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <h3>"The Communist Guide to the Top Ten Lies and Armageddon<br />  References in George Bush’s Inaugural Speech"</h3> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p><strong>Lie 10</strong></p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Scientifically, the word FIRE refers to combustion. But in the<br />  Bible, fire refers to the wrathful punishment of a vengeful God. When<br />  Bush said <em>"a day of fire,"</em> he meant 9/11, which<br />  many Christian fascists believe is punishment for American’s<br />  turning their backs on Jesus.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>The reality is that 9/11 and the rise of the Islamic<br />  fundamentalists cannot be understood without Bob Avakian’s<br />  writings on the Enlightenment, the massive dislocations of<br />  globalization, and the loss of revolutionary China as a pole of<br />  attraction in the world.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p><strong>Lie #9</strong></p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Many people were confused to hear Bush talk so much about<br />  "freedom," some figured he was just straight-up lying.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>But when he says <em>"Because we have acted in the great<br />  liberating tradition of this country, tens of millions have achieved<br />  their freedom,"</em> Bush is actually (believe it or not)<br />  referring to the never-ending U.S. conquest of Iraq, and telling the<br />  world to expect more of the same and worse! His global mission of<br />  "spreading freedom" is nothing more than the freedom of<br />  U.S. empire to further dominate the world.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Years ago, on Tom Snyder’s TV show, Bob Avakian pointed out<br />  that "If the exploiters are free to exploit, then the masses of<br />  people are not free to be free of that exploitation."</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p><strong>Lie #8</strong></p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>At the end of his speech, Bush speaks of <em>"liberty and the<br />  Author of Liberty."</em> The implication is that liberty is<br />  God’s will and its author is God.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Mainly Bush uses "freedom" as a stand-in for global<br />  configuring—but his use of vocabulary also allows evangelicals<br />  to hear a message that literally <em>sanctifies</em> American attacks<br />  in the world.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Listened to from this framework, the use of the word<br />  "freedom" 27 times and the use of "liberty" 15<br />  times give this global mission of George Bush a true crusader<br />  feel.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p><strong>Lie #7</strong></p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Bush said: "<em>From the day of our founding we have<br />  proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights and<br />  dignity and matchless value.</em>"</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>This, about a country that dragged Africans to its shores in slave<br />  chains? This, about a country that carried out systematic genocide<br />  against the Native inhabitants?</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Did Condoleezza tutor him about this history? Does she know it<br />  herself?</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>In contrast, Bob Avakian has recently written his memoir, <em>From<br />  Ike to Mao and Beyond,</em>about what he learned from Black<br />  classmates in an integrated high school during the 1950s and by<br />  getting to know leaders of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s. This<br />  played a critical role in his development as a revolutionary<br />  communist leader who has dug deeply into how revolution must and can<br />  uproot every last vestige of racism and national oppression.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p><strong>Lie #6</strong></p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Bush said in his speech: <em>"Americans, at our best, value<br />  the life we see in one another, and must always remember that even<br />  the unwanted have worth."</em></p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Bush didn’t choose to speak openly about his plans to<br />  criminalize abortion and the doctors who perform them. But this<br />  deceitful talk of "valuing life," coupled with "the<br />  unwanted have worth" was clearly a set of codewords.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>The day after his reelection, he called up a newly elected senator<br />  who believes in legally executing abortion providers, and said,<br />  "It’s time to get the job done."</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Okay, in Bush’s twisted world, fetuses are holy persons and<br />  adult women are just incubators.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>The Revolutionary Communist Party says, "Break the chains!<br />  Unleash the fury of women as a mighty force for revolution!"</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>In our new revolutionary society, women and men will develop new<br />  ways of relating with mutual respect and equality. And the impatience<br />  of women to tear up the old oppressive arrangements will actually be<br />  a positive factor that pushes the whole revolution forward until<br />  communism is achieved.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p><strong>Lie #5</strong></p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Bush said, <em>"Leaders of governments with long habits of<br />  control need to know: To serve your people you must learn to trust<br />  them."</em> Right. From the man who called the protests of<br />  millions worldwide against the Iraq invasion a "focus<br />  group."</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Bob Avakian doesn’t huddle with advisors trying to<br />  manipulate or deceive the people. His approach is to put<br />  contradictions in the hands of more and more people, including the<br />  biggest questions of how to make revolution and how to run a society<br />  that the masses would actually want to live in. He leads the people<br />  to understand these contradictions and to help solve them.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>He actually <em>does</em> trust the people and has confidence that<br />  with genuine communist leadership they can change the whole<br />  world.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p><strong>Lie #4</strong></p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Bush says, <em>"America’s vital interests and our<br />  deepest beliefs are now one."</em></p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Bush is effectively saying he recognizes no separation between<br />  church and state.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>For example, Bush’s faith-based initiative: They are pulling<br />  millions of dollars in government funding out of secular social<br />  service programs and pouring it almost exclusively into Christian<br />  organizations.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p><strong>Lie #3</strong></p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Bush says, <em>"Rights must be more than the grudging<br />  concessions of dictators; they are secured by free dissent and the<br />  participation of the governed..."</em></p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>This, said at the most militarized inaugural address in history,<br />  where protesters were attacked, cordoned off, and even reactionary<br />  George Will said the whole affair looked like a banana republic under<br />  siege.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Bob Avakian understands that the proletariat must hold firmly on<br />  to state power once it is achieved, that it is not worth holding onto<br />  if it doesn’t just tolerate dissent, but foster it. Because<br />  even truths that bring to light negative things about the<br />  revolutionary vanguard can become part of what we need to learn to<br />  move society forward.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p><strong>Lie #2</strong></p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>We’re getting up there in our Top Ten, this is Number Two.<br />  We saved it till the end because it is such a BIG LIE. Throughout<br />  Bush’s speech dwells this HUGE LIE that has been with humanity<br />  for thousands of years, causing untold slaughter and suffering, the<br />  lie used by all of the biggest tyrants in the world. That lie is<br />  GOD.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>The Truth: GOD DOES NOT EXIST.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Chairman Avakian has said it is time to quit praying to things<br />  that don’t exist and time to be liberating our minds and moving<br />  to end oppression the only way it can be done—by fighting<br />  it.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p><em>Finally, let’s have a drumroll here for the Number One<br />  lie from Bush’s speech!</em></p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p><strong>Lie #1</strong></p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Bush said: <em>"After the shipwreck of<br />  communism..."</em></p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>It is now supposed to be an assumed and accepted fact that<br />  communism was a failure—and that any hopes of a radically<br />  different and liberated alternative to capitalism are a false<br />  hope.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>But, in fact, communism was no shipwreck!</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>The actual history of socialist society puts to shame Bush’s<br />  mangling of the truth, and his smirking declaration that no society<br />  greater than the U.S. has ever existed. <em lang="fr" xml:lang="&lt;br" xml:lang="fr">  "fr"&gt;Au contraire!</em></p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Bursting through the cracks of the 20th-century lumbering<br />  imperialist death machine, the workers and peasants in Russia in 1917<br />  and in China in 1949 made revolution and accomplished amazing things.<br />  They went from unspeakable poverty and misery to becoming the people<br />  who, for the first time in history, started to consciously transform<br />  society and themselves.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, workers,<br />  peasants and students were called upon by Mao Tsetung to struggle to<br />  keep China on the road to a classless communist world. They<br />  criticized those leaders who were trying to take things back to the<br />  old society. They debated philosophy, political economy, and world<br />  affairs. They got involved in the running of factories, hospitals and<br />  schools.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>In the end, the communist revolutions of the Soviet Union and<br />  China were overturned. How should we sum this up?</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Bob Avakian looks at these socialist experiences of the last 100<br />  years, and sees a great start! But, he says, we can do much better<br />  and soar much higher.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Standing on the accomplishments of these great chapters in human<br />  history, and fearlessly examining the grievous aspects of these<br />  revolutions, Bob Avakian has re-envisioned what it will take to get<br />  to a communist world, and even what that classless society could look<br />  like.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>Avakian’s approach combines the need for firm revolutionary<br />  leadership to hold onto power with involving more and more people in<br />  the process of exercising that power. It includes unleashing ferment,<br />  giving expression to the diversity in society as opposed to people<br />  being regimented and saluting an "official ideology." He is<br />  about moving society and the world to the point where there is no<br />  longer a need for a government of any kind; where the people<br />  consciously and voluntarily transform themselves and the world.</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <p>For all the real and monumental dangers that Bush concentrates,<br />  the same global shifts and changes that are driving Bush to his<br />  extremes are also bringing the possibility of Bob Avakian’s<br />  liberating future more sharply into focus. These two futures are<br />  colliding. If people come to know about Bob Avakian and throw<br />  everything they have into this battle for the future (for indeed,<br />  everything is at stake!) then some day folks will look back and be<br />  able to speak with <em>profound truth</em> and <em>profound joy</em><br />  about the "shipwreck of capitalism."</p> <p></p> <p>  </p> <div class="footer">   <br /> <hr /> <p></p> <p>    </p> <p>This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary<br />    Worker Online</p> <p>    <a href="&lt;a%20href=">http://rwor.org</a>" title=<br />    "Revolutionary Worker"&gt;<a href="http://rwor.org">http://rwor.org</a>/&gt;</p> <p>    Write: Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654</p> <p>    Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: 773-227-4497</p> <p>  </p></div> <p> </p><p></p>