The Deprogram Podcast

I think a lot of people imagine theory as a dense impenetrable tome full of equations they have to learn by heart and it reminds them of school. I try to promote reading wherever you can (during break, on commute, 20 minutes before lights out etc) and when I recommend books I also give an idea of how long it'll take to read. Even if you read for only 5 or 10 minutes it's still a gain. Sometimes you also don't need to start with the whole book, you can recommend just one chapter.

There's also no guarantee that someone going off and reading theory alone will come to the same conclusions as you. Reading groups are excellent for this and other reasons; people have companionship in doing it, they have some accountability to keep at it, they have others to help them through the text, they are one step closer to being organized, etc.

"Go read theory" doesn't increase organization or guarantee any increase in political literacy.

Some of theory was written a long time ago, translated from another language, for a different historical context. Some of it's also incredibly relevant today, but it's still a task to work out that relevance. It's not all obvious at a glance. For example, the soundbite version of "no investigation, no right to speak" might give the impression that Mao is saying you shouldn't speak on something at all unless you have investigated first. In context: https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-6/mswv6_11.htm

He gives the following example:

There are not a few comrades doing inspection work, as well as guerrilla leaders and cadres newly in office, who like to make political pronouncements the moment they arrive at a place and who strut about, criticizing this and condemning that when they have only seen the surface of things or minor details. Such purely subjective nonsensical talk is indeed detestable. These people are bound to make a mess of things, lose the confidence of the masses and prove incapable of solving any problem at all.

When they come across difficult problems, quite a number of people in leading positions simply heave a sigh without being able to solve them. They lose patience and ask to be transferred on the ground that they "have not the ability and cannot do the job"; These are cowards' words. Just get moving on your two legs, go the rounds of every section placed under your charge and "inquire into everything''[1] as Confucius did, and then you will be able to solve the problems, however little is your ability; for although your head may be empty before you go out of doors, it will be empty no longer when you return but will contain all sorts of material necessary for the solution of the problems, and that is how problems are solved. Must you go out of doors? Not necessarily. You can call a fact-finding meeting of people familiar with the situation in order to get at the source of what you call a difficult problem and come to know how it stands now, and then it will be easy to solve your difficult problem.

Investigation may be likened to the long months of pregnancy, and solving a problem to the day of birth. To investigate a problem is, indeed, to solve it.

In other words, he is talking in context about people in positions of party power who are failing to investigate the conditions of the place they have charge over and are instead being quick to make judgments based on a surface level impression.

Of course, the philosophy could be extended to other things and still have value, but that is an example of what he's directly criticizing in context. He didn't have the internet the way we do, so we can't go to somebody like Mao for guidance on it as investigation is concerned. But that's fine because he's a scientist, not a prophet. We only have to work out following the scientific socialist process as he did. Incidentally, learning that process is I think the far more important than purely absorbing words of theory, but also makes it more obvious why shared learning and instruction is valuable.

I think beyond this, its incredibly daunting to just be told, "read theory." Especially of someone's idea of theory is Capital. And that isn't even talking about how reading theory isn't actually enough. I read quotations and yet still had to get critique of the Gotha programmed by someone. It was embarrassing but unfortunately necessary.

Personally I think a good mix of things is a good start, plus just having quick references for important questions. I.e, a baby communist should read quotations to understand how to be a communist, state and revolution to understand the state and, well, revolution, and however much economic matter is needed for them to "get it." But that last section can also be done with videos by people like Hakim or The Marxist Project. And otherwise those are very readable works [quotations especially].

After the intial hurdles, people can learn a lot through experience and through general analysis, which can make theory (somewhat) redundant in terms of time, especially of they don't become a cadre.