Saint Mao

In: Telos, Heft 151, S. 173-191

Abstract

Alain Badiou's (The Century [2007 translation]) revolutionary aspiration for the "emergence of another humanity" is not based on nostalgia for Leninism, but is, rather, a response to the failure of Leninism & a plea to go beyond not only 19th- but 20th-century political forms. Both Lenin's & Mao Zedong's goals for human freedom were crushed by their institutionalization. In China's Cultural Revolution, Mao urged the people to overthrow state, industrial, & educational control, but after they did, their democratic energy was damped & then dominated by the sovereign authority of Mao. The author argues that the contradictions of Maoist politics are a problem of political theology, in that the party-state's claim to "serve the people" implies that the state is a divinity, & its citizens religious communicants. Indeed, his charisma was such that the people believed in the man here called "Saint Mao" & thus did not challenge "his" state. Using Badiou's conceptual framework (Polemics [2006 translation]), this essay analyzes the Chinese Revolution in terms of whether revolutionary politics can be devoid of theology; & whether "emancipatory" projects can "change the human being in what is most profound" if they are not viewed as sacred. S. Stanton