Hello, guys, I grow up in a working-class family in China, during my teenage years living in a Soviet-style communal houses built during the Mao eras, I sometimes wonder why I have to live in conditions like that yet my classmates whose parents owns company or are senior party officials can live a way better lifestyle than I did, this propels me read some books in my free time after school so I can answer my question.
During my years of schooling we have to study the so called “Marxist-Leninism” courses in schools as we are required to graduate, just like the pupils in the former Eastern Germany and USSR once did. The purpose of those Marxist-lennism courses is not to educate the pupils so they will become Marxists, But to teach them the history of the Chinese communist party and why under the Marxist-lennism ideology it has the right to rule, Usually,as a result, after taking them we actually don’t know what Marxism is, all they can tell you is we feel it is obvious indoctrination yet we have to learn it and to pass the exams in order to graduate.
But later I become more or less a leftist not because of those Marxist-Leninism classes I have to learn at school, but because of some progressive magazines and books I read after school, including the Nation, some Jean-Paul Sartre and some videos by professor Richard wolff; My leftist political conviction goes even to the point where I feel I have an urge of organize a public rally against capitalism or organize a workers’ co-op so I can contribute to the collapse of capitalism.
But like anyone from a working-class family, I also have the dream of one day becoming a rich man, and having the opportunity of enjoying a better life. This means I need to spend my time not on reading Karl Marx, But accepting capitalism as it actually is, and spend time reading some books about accounting, finance, investment and other job-related books, be a good employer, learn the game of capitalism, so I can hopefully make more money as some of my friends who has managed to do so by starting their own E-commerce business did. because China currently is in a position where capitalism is still on its upwards path.
What should I do? should a person from a working-class background read Karl Marx and spend her life as an anti-capitalist activist or should she forget Karl Marx and learn the game of capitalism and trying to get rich instead?
Or I do not have to make such a hard choice, maybe a third alternative exists? Say, becoming a so-called ‘Champagne Socialist’. That is, becoming a person who is rich yet at the same time a leftist. But when I think about it I do not think this is a way out, after all, how a ‘Champagne Socialist’ is able to justify the champagne part of his lifestyle? (btw, is there any champagne Socialist here?)
Is there a way out? Thanks!