Digital Leninism is Not

There have been a couple of reminders of the roots of Communism this week.  The Gathering In Beijing is a reminder that Communism took over there in what is a short time in history.  A celebration of 100 years of it in Russia follows that.  A Wall Street Journal article quotes several academics who view what Xi has accomplished as Digital Leninism, which is catchy, as slogans go, but represents something that is anything but.  Leninism is ugly, and Communism, at least as it is practiced in China, is not far behind.  I would have you look to the MCLC Resource Center at Ohio State for examples.

Xi can digitize almost anything, and Western scholars can twist that into fancy slogans, but it doesn’t work out very well with what is happening in the world today.  Russian and China have a series of agreements between the two of them to cooperate against all enemies, and these seem to be working pretty well.  The commonality between them is that they keep two totalitarian state leaders in power.  Both of those leaders see the world as a place where they can lead, both economically and politically.   This is an alignment of Communist China and Socialist Russia against the democracies of the world.  It is also something more.

There is a belief in these systems of government that government is good and knows best.  They are led from the top down, and discourage thought and action through censorship and control of public media.  Ideas, and economic well being, come from the government to the people.  Government will take care of the people and they will be grateful in return.  If they aren’t, that can be dealt with.  There is an untold thought that the people are not really that smart and have to be managed to keep harmony.   If that reminds you of someone, it should.  That is not Lenin;  it is George Orwell.  

A man who came to the US from one of those countries told me once that people in democracies “act free” and anyone can tell the difference between them and somebody who lives under the digital oversight of these kinds of government.  Fox had a reporter trying to interview people in China about how they felt about North Korea.  One actually said something, all the others ignored him.  One woman delegate to the National Party Conference said she had to go help a sick person and could not talk to him.  A few literally ran from him.

It reminded me of the KGB agents who used to accompany academic speakers to conferences.  I asked one of them if he was enjoying the conference, and will never forget the look on his face.  I’m not sure he even knew what the conference was about, and he hastily looked to his packet to find out.  I thought about the people he was here to monitor and what kind of life that was.

There were nothing but accolades from the business leaders who attended Xi.   These are the same types who take donations from China to run seminars and teach at US schools.  China pays to have their views expressed in news outlets, political parties, and businesses they control.  They dominate digitally and use that domination to undermine contrary opinions.  Follow the way China does this and most people living in free societies would not want to take the place of citizens there.  That is the real meaning of digital Leninism.