21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beyond politics?, April 29, 2006
This review is from: From Ike to Mao and Beyond: My Journey from Mainstream America to Revolutionary Communist (Paperback)
The importance of critical thinking is an important theme of "From Ike to Mao and Beyond." This approach influenced Bob Avakian's development in the transformation he went through as an individual. He was going along with his life, with a middle class background, and then he began to change.
There were 3 main themes that influenced his life: communism, socialism, and the civil rights movement (that caused Avakian to critically assess the differences between true human rights and those countenanced by the forces of familial and popular social custom).
Bob Avakian's lived experiences illuminate situations that one can learn from: not readily accepting whatever one is told or observes others doing, but questioning such practices. Does one want a better quality versus more quantity out of life? Should simple human dignity not be at the forefront of this demand for a better quality of life? Avakian's book illuminates how one individual learned to want more out of life - did not know how to get it - and eventually found a way to have it.
One example of Bob Avakian looking for the truth was described in the book when Kennedy made a speech during the Cuban Missile Crisis incident in Cuba. He said the U.N. charter forbade the Soviet Union from having missiles in Cuba. Bob Avakian went to look up the U.N. Charter, read it several times and found out he had been lied to.
As a professor, I want my students to be critical thinkers and question lies masked as concerns for the "common good." In order to become critical thinkers, I believe that my students must be exposed to all - and I mean all - opinions regardless of the issue. This book can open people up to an approach of how to look at things with a critical eye: be self-reflexive and examine the footprints that the mere practice of one's own culture might leave upon others, and ask and answer truthfully, whether or not this is the impression that one seeks to leave.
My mom who is from the South has commented that growing up there you understood where you stood because people would just come out and say what they thought. People like George Wallace (an extremely racist former Governor of Alabama) would just outright say he thought Blacks were inferior. Whereas in the North there would be a covering up of how people thought. I have experienced the latter myself in California.
During the Civil rights period, people felt deeply that there needed to be a change and they were willing to do something about it. They had to "step outside of the box" and be willing to go out and dare to struggle for something different with different people. They did not know the outcome of what would happen if they did this. That is what is needed today. People need to take risks and not accept what's going on, especially where the common good is concerned. Bob Avakian did this with his life. He was looking for the truth and he has pursued that, not knowing where that would lead him, taking risks.
I was talking to a friend about the memoir, and my friend said, "Dude. This is communism you're talking about." I said, "Look into it. Did you ever read the Communist Manifesto? Communism on paper is a beautiful thing, just like capitalism;however, what the sleeze that people engage in in practice tells more about the problems of the system than the system itself. Just because things happened in Russia or China that weren't good, you shouldn't reject it. Is there not a capitalist counterpart? Capitalism has very wealthy people, a middle class, but a lot of people are two paychecks away from poverty. Under capitalism there are a few people who hoard all the wealth and incredible numbers of homeless." After this back and forth, my friend is now reading the book. I believe people can get drawn into the story from a humanistic approach (regardless of whether or not they are communist).
If you go through Bob's story, you get to see how he came to discover socialism and communism, and how the positives of these systems that might benefit people in this country in practice; hence encouraging the creation of new humanistic models for the improvement on life for all Americans. The students need to read this. While they may not agree with Avakian's politics - and it is not written anywhere that they have to - they may agree with the humanity that Avakian found by questioning and sifting through the hidden evils of unexamined social custom.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
RE: From Ike to Mao and Beyond, February 1, 2005
This review is from: From Ike to Mao and Beyond: My Journey from Mainstream America to Revolutionary Communist (Paperback)
I have just finished reading this book and wow, what a wild,exciting trip it has been. However, more important than that, this book breaks through a lot of the mechanical stereotypes of what Communists are and explodes the myth that Communism is dead. You laugh, cry , get angry and just go through a whole range of emotions in reading this book. Bob writes in a manner that is approachable to many people from all walks of life who are wondering how can we take on this monstrous system that we live under and win and bring forth an exciting new world. Yet, he does not condescend nor water down what his message is. This book is a must read for anyone who is looking for a way to change the world.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
33 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One person's determination to search for a better path, February 6, 2005
This review is from: From Ike to Mao and Beyond: My Journey from Mainstream America to Revolutionary Communist (Paperback)
From Ike To Mao and Beyond is the memoir of a long distance runner whose disillusionment with imperialism, racism, and capitalism led him from his mainstream American background to embrace the ideals of revolutionary communism. In the mid-1980's he dared to write a book with the provocative title, "Democracy: Can't We Do Better Than That?" Now, well after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he critically analyzes the flaws of modern democracy - flaws that divide society into classes and allow the upper classes to wield disproportionate power - and questions the blind refutation of a more egalitarian socialist system. A window into transparent injustice and one person's true-life determination to search for a better path, despite the scorn of the society around him.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
