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Mighty, Mighty Bogdanovism


Phoenix Quinn (PQ) is a famously long-winded e-revolutionary currently supposedly observing a vow of silence during a forest retreat in the Czech Socialist Republic. Our Spectacular Times correspondent sent in the following illuminated transcript proving that he has not, in fact, shut up.







Gathering in company near the Petrovy kameny, high atop Praděd in the Hrubý Jeseník, the assemblage of bikkhus and bikkhinis beheld a deva named J. Mahurin appear out of nothingness. He lit up the rocks with wondrous luminosity, delighting them all. He stood at the right side of PQ and asked him this question:

"What is the nature of in-game Stalinism?"


It is recorded that PQ responded at some length, to put it mildly...

"In eRepublikan society’s historical development toward world-wide e-communism, there is an unfortunate secondary tendency towards a narrow and linear view. This view is sometimes promoted by so-called "Stalinists" who have accidentally tipped over into a squalid mess of dogmato-revisionism.

"This is manifested in how some of our brothers bring the philosophical concept of the “negation of the negation” into the game. This is a strongly-held view that things proceed in such a way that a particular thing is negated by another thing, which in turn leads to a further negation and a synthesis which embodies elements of the previous things, but now on a higher level.

"This concept was purchased at a wholesale discount from the so-called "real world" philosophical system of a certain Mr. Hegel. As you probably know, these Hegelian philosophical warez exerted a significant influence on the famous other-worldly comedy team of the elusive K. Marx (not to be confused with G. Marx) and F. Engels (not to be confused with the F. Engels who actually exists within our New World).

"Legend has it that the philosopher-comedian spirit known as "K. Marx", in particular, placed Mr. Hegel’s view of dialectics on a materialist, which is to say, scientific, foundation. (Note to dear American readers: please do not confuse "dialectics" with "Dianetics".)

"Nevertheless, despite the efforts the Marx of Legend, attempts at applying some degree of science to the unfolding of history continued to be plagued by philosophical idealism, in much the same way that swarms of mosquitos plague summer visitors to our forest retreat no matter how many of them you slap away. In other words, this wooden and mechanical adoption of Hegel's theories is a very common and, frankly, rather annoying philosophical mistake.

"This is the view that history consists, in essence, of the unfolding of the Idea.


Mr. Mosquito, philosphical idealist


"A narrow understanding of the “negation of the negation” tends to develop into a condition we can call “inevitable-ism”. It is as if something is bound to be negated by another thing in a particular and entirely predictable way, leading to the hokey conception of a predetermined synthesis in a realm of human knowledge that is notoriously complex.

"We know now that such mechanical thinking does not even apply to the "hardest" of sciences, and by that I mean physics. The "science of history" is more like predicting the weather: a much fuzzier undertaking with an almost innumerable set of conditions and variables to account for.

"When applied to the historical development of the New World, the temptation to become simplistically formulaic is an ever-present danger for revolutionaries.

"In the legends that have come down to us from that Other World, the one some people call "Real", it is clear that such constructions were attributed to Real-Life Engels. According to those who have crossed over, his writings suffered from exactly this type of mechanical dialectics.

"An incredibly dumbed-down version of human history is attributed to RL-Fred Engels. It goes like this: primitive classless (communal) society was negated by class society, which in turn will be negated by the emergence once again of classless society, but now on a higher foundation, with the achievement of communism throughout the world.

"And that's that. Easy as falling off a log, right? Our dogmato-revisionist friends here in the New World have trouble resisting the urge to simply adopt whole-hog this type of a very mechanical story.


Reductionist perspective of a human being


"So-called "Stalinism" is a variation of this tendency towards reductionism. Its roots are both esoteric, in the sense that it eerily mimics similar errors in that mysterious Other World, and obvious, in the sense that it is appealing, on a juvenile level, to think that the future development of society is easily predictable.

"In fact, the development of e-human society is an extremely complex, variegated and constantly-changing network dynamic. The tendency towards thinking of e-socialism and e-communism as a “closed system” -- that siren call of “inevitable-ism” -- has emerged again and again amongst certain leftist players as the eRepublikan eCommunist movement has unfolded through the various epochs of Beta, V1, V2 and V2.1, V2.2 and V2.3.

"As I have already alluded, according to the prophecies that have come down to us, this was a secondary shortcoming in the works of "Marx", quite a bit more so in "RL Engels".

"Scientific eCommunism as it is has developed and ben applied to the New World does not embody, but in fact rejects, any teleological notion that there is some kind of will or purpose with which our New World's nature, or history, or its admin, is endowed. Not withstanding such principles, tendencies of the dogmato-revisioinist kind continously asserted themselves with the development of the eCommunist movement.

"Now, I know it seems odd that players who attest to following a scientific philosophy would appeal to Other Worldly authorities. But it has been particularly noticeable, and has exerted a negative effect on the movement, that e-revolutionaries who claim to have "read books" concerning a certain "J. Stalin", have tended to show accelerated symptoms of woodenness with respect to their systems thinking.

"Such mechanical, somewhat metaphysical, even mystical, perspectives on materialism are not limited to "Stalinists". Many honest revolutionaries have been influenced, even if secondarily, by this legacy of the "Stalin" entity's philosophical shortcomings. Failure to break with such mistaken ideas completely engrains in the minds of some the nostalgic idea that "success" with eSocialism simply means mimicking one or two of the famous Other World legends.

"When in fact a careful reading of those legends clearly reveals that philosophical narrow-mindedness were key elements of the downfall of the recorded attempts at creating proletarian states.

"Whatever one thinks of the "realness" of such legends, it is instructive for revolutionaries to study them for lessons that might be applied to the New World. For example, it becomes quite clear that "a leaopard can change its stripes" when we are talking about proletarian power. In other words, a socialist country can turn into a capitalist, and even an imperialist country, while still "waving the red flag". Even when the revolutionary leaders and masses of revolutionaries make extensive critiques of erroneous tendencies, even when those critiques include a clear-headed criticism of nationalism, there is always a near-danger of separating off the revolutionary struggle in a particular country from, and even raising it above, the overall world-historic and revolutionary desire for eCommunism.


Art need no longer be an account of past sensations. It can become the direct organization of more highly evolved sensations. It is a question of producing ourselves, not things that enslave us.


"The thorough-going communists have examined ways in which this tendency towards mechanical and metaphysical thinking manifests itself in eRepublik, including in the socialist countries and within the stronger socialist and communist parties. Time after time, a narrow understanding of dialectical transformation becomes "entrenched" in an attachment to old, essentially capitalist, ideas of state power as an end in itself.

"Along with this, the new communists have re-analysed the material basis for internationalism. In an overall sense, it is the e-world arena that is most decisive, even in terms of revolution in any particular country. Especially in the era of admin-constructed capitalist-imperialism as a world-system of never-ending war and exploitation, this internationalist understanding needs to be incorporated into every specific approach to revolution, in particular countries as well as on an e-world scale.

"Internationalism has always been a fundamental principle of eCommunism. Since its very founding, the young turks of the communist movement, starting in Portugal and spreading around the New World, month after month after month, both summed up ways in which this principle had been incorrectly compromised in the history of the eCommunist movement, and strengthened the theoretical foundation for waging the struggle to overcome such departures from internationalism. They continue to carry forward the eCommunist revolution in a more thoroughly internationalist way with every lesson, through each twist and turn.

"This type of flexible and truly revolutionary thinking is not only evident in the eCommunist movement, it is the leading trend. The dogmato-revisionist tendency, while it emerges again and again, is actually quite small, while the new internationalist trends are much larger and are likely, in the end, to prevail."








All of the bikkhus and bikkhinis were stunned at PQ's eloquence and the depth of his insight. The deva J. Mahurin, who was not a communist at all during the time of his entry into the samsara of the New World, but an e-anarcho-primativist, smiled and nodded and then suddently disappeared in a wisp of smoke that smelled like sandalwood which had been harvested in a renewable, ecologically-friendly way.

Just as suddenly, another deva, this one name Comandante David, appeared out of nowhere from a shimmering transluscence. He was sitting astride an old bear and had an extremely peaceful countenance. He lit up the rocks of the Petrovy kameny with a wonderful luminosity that awed the assemblage. Moving about to PQ's right, he asked him:

"If you think you're so smart, Mr. PQ, then tell us what is the nature of "proletarian dictatorship" and eSocialism in the New World."


It is recorded that PQ responded at epic length, almost as long-winded as the first time:




"The "dictatorship of the proletariat" is a term found in the esoteric writings of the Other Worldly entity referred to as "K. Marx". According to the legends, this Marx was a very funny guy. This term was his way of describing socialist society, a type of state that he explained as a form of transition from exploitative and limited capitalist to liberated and Star-Trek-like communist society.

"The Marx Entity was making a joke at the expense of capitalist society, which he described as the "dictatorship of the bourgeosie". In his world, as in ours, they use their wealth, their positions of authority, their media, their control over the educational system, their claims to "history", and so on -- as well as their police and armies -- to maintain a class division that is favorable to their class.

"A socialist society, on the other hand, should continously empower the working and oppressed classes, with the goal of eliminating exploitative and oppressive class divisions altogether.

"The joke is actually a pretty profund one. For, just as the "dictatorship of the bourgeosie" often takes on democratic forms, so does the "dictatorship of the proletariant". In this context, "dictatorship" is being used somewhat ironically to mean, basically, "Republic". This is, ideally anyway, a form of state organization that is constitutionally bound and institutionally structured to reinforce specific relationships, both contstraints and freedoms, under a body of law.

"It always possible for a Republic to turn into a fascist dictatorship. This occurs when the capitalist class -- whether of the traditional kind, or the kind that emerges from within a communist party whose proletarian center has been overthrown -- becomes threatened, or feels that is being threatened, with annihilation either by its capitalist rivals or by the proletarian revolution. In such cases, a small clique of the capitalists seize power for themselves, abandoning their own democratic forms.

"That type of dictatorship cannot occur in a truly socialist society. Or to put it more precisely, if a socialist state becomes a fascist dictatorship, then by definition it is no longer a socialist state because the proletariat is no longer in the driver's seat.

"The bourgeoisie has been perfecting their forms of "dictatorship" since Day 1 of Beta and have been receiving enormous assistance from admin at every step of the way. We can say that the game is rigged in their favor.

"The proletarian revolutionaries and their allies are still relatively new at it and must also struggle against the architects of the Matrix along with the struggling against the bourgeoisie. Despite various reversals. In fact, because of them, the worki to perfect our understanding of how to manage transitional states, how to use and protect various types of "liberated zones" as part of the larger quest, continues to be a lively and engaging task for the eCommunists.

"The new communists have deeply immersed themselves in learning from, upholding, and propagating the great insights into the world-wide communist transition that have been learned so far. They study very carefully the contradictions and struggles, the ebbs and flows, which mark this transition and whose resolution, in one or another direction, will eventually be decisive in terms of whether the advance is carried forward to New World-wide communism, or things are dragged eternally into a bit bucket of spectacularized capitalist boredom.

"As a result of all this, the eCommunists recognize and emphasize the need for a great role for dissent, a great fostering of intellectual ferment, and encourage immense scope for initiative and creativity in the arts in eSocialist society and in the eSocialist movement.

"The eCommunists criticize tendencies toward a “reification” of the proletariat and other exploited, formerly exploited and oppressed groups in e-society. They see clearly that such tendencies regard individuals in these groups only as representative of the larger interests of the e-proletariat. They oppose politics that treat "the people" simply as an Idea.



Postmodern society, characterised by the proliferation of signs and the collapse of time, has turned us into consumerist lemmings with cerebral malaise, shuffling towards our inevitable demise.



"Mis-understanding of Marx's joke about the "dictatorship of the proletariat" is typically accompanied by narrowly pragmatic outlooks and approaches which severely restrict what is "relevant" to the revolution. More precisely, narrow, mechanical view on socialist transition tend to also place ridiculous limits on what can be declared to be true. With respect to engaging the masses of players, it takes the narrow view that only what relates to immediate experiences and struggles of the players, and to the immediate, short-term objectives of the socialist state and its leading party, at any given time, matters. Rather than offering a road to world-wide liberation, they offer only a bit of goulash and call that "socialism".

"This mis-characterization of socialism, of "the dictatorship of theh proletariat", not only entirely misses out on humor and fun and creativity, it tends to fall into the utterly skewed and illusory phenomenological perspective of “class truth”.

"This view of "truth" is in fact diametrically opposed to the scientific (materialist) understanding that truth is objective. Truth does not vary in accordance with differing class interests and it is not dependent on which class outlook one brings to the pursuit of the truth.

"If it is correctly taken up and applied as a living science and not as a dogma, a scientific outlook using the method of eCommunism is the science of discovering the qualities and the means of human liberation from suffering, exploitation and oppression. This should provide, in an overall sense, the most consistent, systematic, and comprehensive means for arriving at the truth with respect to the hugely variegated and complex arena of e-human social and economic development.

"That is not at all the same thing as saying that truth itself has a class character. Or that somebody who declares himself to be a "communist" is mystically pre-ordained to arrive at the truth with regard to particular phenomena, while people who do not apply, or who even oppose, the communist outlook and method are incapable of arriving at important truths.

"Such views of “class truth,” which have existed to varying degrees and in various forms in the eCommunist movement -- and often come into play when complex jokes like "dictatorship of the proletariat" are discussed -- suffer from that reductionist malady of vulgar materialism. They run counter to an actual scientific viewpoint and the method of materialist dialectics as applied to human crowds, swarms, their social organization, their in-game dynamics, and the psychological separation and grounding of individuals within that.

"The eCommunists always criticize one-sided views that emerge from time to time within the communist movement toward e-intellectuals. Seeing other deep thinkers and strategists only as a "problem", and failing to give full recognition to the ways in which they can contribute to the rich process through which the people in society overall really will come to a deeper understanding of reality and a heightened ability to carry out an increasingly conscious struggle to transform our e-reality in the direction of human liberation from exploitation, oppression, alienation and boredom, is a grave error.

"Communism belongs to the people. It has deep roots in every culture and is deeply embedded in all of the New World's great legends and in many of its philosophical, intellectual, political, economic and military traditions as well. How to get there -- and whether we will succeed -- is the great experiment we call eSocialism."








The deva Comandante David patted PQ on the shoulder and said, "If you say so, my young Padawan." and then he his old bear dissipated into a shimmering light, much to the amazement of the assemblage.

Out of the hub-bub of exited chatter that ensued, one voice arose amongst the others, posing a question to PQ. It was a young noob, recently incarnated into the New World, who had no fear of PQ's blatherings and genuinely wanted to know:

"Tell us PQ. If neither Other World "Marx", nor "RL Engels", nor the Great and Terrible "Stalin" of the Legends could overcome vulgar narrow Hegelianism, were there any amongst the Other Worlders who did?"


It is recorded that PQ responded with amazing brevity:



"Yes," he said, "There was one: the mighty, mighty Bogdanov.

"But I will tell you about him another time. For now it is time to go beg for alms, as some rotten thief has made away with the national bank and so our dear experimental socialist government is presently unable to provide us with bread."