Words Cannot Change People; They Only Filter Them

People can only understand what they are capable of understanding
People only feel something about what they are receptive to. This is dialectical materialism. Human understanding has objective limits, bounded by class, the foundations of personality, and the environment in which one grew up—its material basis.
The petty and small bourgeoisie are backward; the proletariat is advanced. Having sound understanding is good fortune; having unsound understanding is misfortune. This is fate.
A person’s understanding grows and changes along its own natural course, according to its own laws. There is no possibility of “changing,” remolding, or educating others.
Understanding has its own fixed consumer base
A shared foundation of understanding, a consensus.
When understandings and views become popular among the petty and small bourgeoisie, this is no good thing. On the contrary, it often indicates vulgarity and mediocrity—for example, the belief that human nature is evil, elitism, theories of IQ, and the doctrine of striving.
Preoccupation with what is popular is the petty and small bourgeoisie pandering to vulgar tastes, catering to the big Other.
To break with a consensus is to declare one’s position.
Look at the history of the international communist movement
Even the understandings and views of great figures such as Marx, Zhuangzi, and Lu Xun reach only a few people with whom they have an affinity, let alone those of ordinary people like us. In the first half of the 20th century, when Marxism’s global influence was at its peak, how many people truly believed in Marxism, even in China and Russia? Very few. All the more so for us.
Marx-Zhuangzi psychology, as a “subset” of the two “niche” bodies of thought of Marx and Zhuangzi, is bound to be even more niche. Yet as the Great Way, it is bound to find consensus among the proletariat, the people, and unpretentious people, resonating with the true masses. The people do not understand the words of Marx and Zhuangzi, but they understand and support their spirit and their positions.
Advanced and correct understanding does not serve to spread ideas widely or educate people; it serves as a means of selection and of building consensus. It builds consensus within a minority, and between that minority and the masses. This has been true throughout the history of the international communist movement, from the Manifesto to the CCP replacing the Social Democratic Party, the Bolsheviks, the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, and so on. For people within history, it is simply a matter of choosing their own position.
The historical place and role of Marx-Zhuangzi psychology is to serve as a consensus, a position, and a criterion for selection in the atomized cyberpunk era of the 21st century.
Only select
Relations between people are simply a matter of chance and affinity. Understanding exists in the present.
“Changing” others creates enormous karmic obstructions. Simply selecting is a basic mark of maturity. Words serve to establish a connection with one’s own nature, rather than entangle people in karmic obstructions.
Speaking useless words to the wrong people only conveys one’s own ignorance; onlookers see clearly. The other person merely tolerates or exploits that ignorance.
Many people misunderstand Leninism as propaganda, education, and remolding. In fact, it is only selection.
To recognize the limitations of people, the limitations of language, and historical limitations; to be without words, without contrived action, without power, and without attachment; to seek truth from facts and follow the laws of things—this, too, is good fortune in understanding.
Previous articles:
“Zhuangzi’s ‘Discussion on Making All Things Equal’: Words Have No Meaning; Forget the Self, See All Things as Equal, and Let Nature Take Its Course”
“The Vanguard Is Not an Indoctrination Squad: Debate and Propaganda Do Not Matter That Much”