Common Karmic Obstructions Among Marxism Enthusiasts

Preface:

1. Enthusiasts of Marxism also have some common karmic obstructions, which are essentially their own petty- and micro-bourgeois karmic obstructions.

Enthusiasts of Marxism are often students, intellectuals, and members of the petty and micro bourgeoisie. Proletarians generally do not have much time, energy, or access to information to engage with the complex body of Marxist history.

Many people lack independent thought, a commitment to seeking truth from facts, and the ability to keep pace with the times.

1. Historical specificity

The history of Marxism is too deeply bound up with the history of the three Communist Internationals, and with narratives of leaders, vanguards, bloodshed, war, and immense transformation.

Many Marxist texts set out the strategies of international leaders in an era of upheaval. They are not methods for ordinary people in a cyberpunk world, facing Cthulhu, to pursue happiness, human well-being, survival, and development. See “Marx + Zhuangzi + Psychology: Marxism from the Bottom Up” and “Contemporary Marxist Survival: Scattered Sparks Illuminating One Another.”

For example, Marx’s discussion of humanism and alienation in the *Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844* has been quietly borrowed by Western sociologists and psychologists for half a century, repackaged, and sold to the public as remedies. Yet enthusiasts of Marxism often lack this perspective and do not understand the pressing needs of the times and the people.

If petty- and micro-bourgeois karmic obstructions were not preventing educated people from truly entering into Marxism, Marxists would not be so rare worldwide.

1. I myself acknowledge that I am a relatively backward member of the micro bourgeoisie.

a. This is no longer an era of assigning class labels and ranking people into rigid hierarchies. We can be more committed to seeking truth from facts.

b. Many great figures came from rich-peasant or old warlord backgrounds. An unfavorable class background can make people more familiar with petty- and micro-bourgeois and feudal karmic obstructions.

c. This article also summarizes my observations of myself and many others as I have approached, moved toward, and come to understand Marxism. I turned toward Marxism in October 2020. Only when I wrote in 2023 and 2024 about practicing Marxism-Leninism through the methods of Daoist cultivation and Zhuangzi did my thinking undergo a clearer shift.

d. Traces of some of the habitual tendencies associated with the karmic obstructions mentioned here remain in me. As the article says, its main purpose is self-criticism and awareness.

I. The Following Common Karmic Obstructions:

(1) Omnipotent Narcissism

1. Worship of superhuman figures

This is most clearly expressed in personality cults, an elitist view of history, and an attachment to “enlightening the masses” and “resenting them for failing to fight back.” This is a heroic view of history, not historical materialism. It is the Napoleon complex of omnipotent narcissism.

1. An obsession with ability

There have been so many exceptionally capable individuals in the history of Marxism. Many people readily associate ability with Marxism. But Marxism is a philosophy for ordinary people and those without exceptional abilities, a philosophy of the left, rather than of the right-wing elite.

Zhuangzi’s philosophy emphasizes being without ability, non-action, and uselessness. It is a philosophy for ordinary people.

1. Fantasies of omniscience and omnipotence

People relish discussing the long-term predictions of leaders such as Marx, Engels, and Lenin. This can readily activate fantasies of omniscience and omnipotence. In fact, Marx, Engels, and Lenin could not predict the future either. As experts with insight, they simply grasped broad trends known to people familiar with the field.

1. Fantasies of changing history and immense historical upheaval

These do not accord with historical materialism. They are also often simply psychological defense mechanisms such as denial and avoidance.

(2) A Sense of Superiority

1. A sense of superiority and significance based on “I alone am awake, I alone am virtuous, and my doctrine alone is right”

1. Glorious isolation

The loneliness and hurt of feeling misunderstood can make the little self even smaller and more closed off: isolated, contracted, and defensive. They can lead the little self to reject and fear the worlds of commerce, capitalism, and the internet.

There are many roots: a sense of superiority, frustrated fantasies of grandeur, disconnection from others, the projection of inner tension, narratives of sacrifice, and frustrated selfobject needs that lead toward pathological idealization and mirroring. There are familiar, painful connections with an earlier rescuer personality and its accompanying loneliness and hurt.

There are also some relatively “objective” factors: 1. Real threats and tensions, such as online harassment and regulatory scrutiny, which trigger defenses; 2. Empathy with the suffering of the times.

1. The zeal of the convert

This is a kind of existential issue. For many young people who are exploring their identities, or even experiencing a sense of inner emptiness, the world of Marxism can provide an excessively strong sense of identity and superiority. This deepens their detachment from reality and weakens their connection with real people and events.

(3) Despondency

1. One’s own anxiety and tension, combined with empathy for real social problems and the suffering of the people, a sense of shared affliction, and political depression

1. The frustration of being unable to seek truth, stay grounded in practice, or keep pace with the times, and of encountering a gap between feedback and ideals

1. Frustration and despondency during a historical ebb, and the disillusionment of discovering that even great figures fail

1. The loneliness and hurt brought about by glorious isolation and a discriminating mindset

1. Envy and jealousy toward the petty and micro bourgeoisie

(4) A Sense of Heavy Responsibility

1. A savior complex

The people-pleasing and rescuer personalities distorted by conditional attention in East Asian children’s families of origin expand into a desire to save the world.

The people do not need Marxists to save them. On the contrary, Marxists are always being saved by the people. After the April 12 massacre, the Chinese Communist Party had to integrate itself into the peasant movement and take to the mountains to find a way forward.

1. A sense of calling

This is a relatively positive but heavy aspect. The history of Marxism contains so much bloodshed, sacrifice, and quiet dedication that the contrast with the present ebb is dramatically stark. For young people, this can easily evoke a calling to carry forward the lost teachings of past sages and follow in their predecessors’ footsteps, one after another.

But Marxism does not need anyone to save it. It is objective truth.

1. A sacrificial complex

The sacrificial complex instilled in East Asian children through the discipline of the society in which they grow up. In practice, it reflects insufficient regard for one’s own time and life, and those of others.

(5) A Discriminating Mindset

1. An inability to think dialectically

Linear, dogmatic, and extreme thinking.

Dismissing the right wholesale and bitterly detesting those on the left who are “not radical enough.” There are left-wing elements within the right and right-wing elements within the left. Many who profess an enthusiasm for the left are far-right. All of this must be assessed in light of actual circumstances.

1. Excessive disparagement of peasants and the petty bourgeoisie;

This does not accord with the classical principle of uniting left-wing and intermediate forces, nor with the practical realities of interpersonal relationships, survival, and development. In fact, it is often related to people’s own karmic obstructions: the aversion to the countryside felt by exam-focused strivers from farming families in small towns, the fear of the countryside felt by their urban counterparts, or the envy and jealousy that students and members of the micro bourgeoisie feel toward the petty bourgeoisie.

Marxist criticism of petty-bourgeois tendencies, especially in this era, is more importantly a means of self-criticism and awareness.

1. An inability to correctly understand certain negative phenomena and further divisions within the working population

“Resenting them for failing to fight back,” wavering, and confusion.

1. An inability to respect ordinary people’s limitations

Failing to recognize one’s own ordinariness, limitations, and petty-bourgeois malaise.

Or ignoring one’s own limitations and shortcomings while crying “ignorance” when an ordinary person spits.

(6) Defensiveness

1. Actual attacks, online harassment, and social tensions

1. The projection of inner tension: anger, powerlessness, aggression, and disparagement

1. Delusions of persecution

II. Marxists Should Be Radiant

Taken together, these many karmic obstructions express the “little self,” rather than a larger self connected with the people and history.

They should be radiant, rather than gloomy.

They should be compassionate, rather than mean-spirited.

They should be open and generous, rather than tense and timid.

They should be aware, rather than self-intoxicated.

They should emphasize self-criticism, rather than criticism of others.

They should be good at building unity, rather than isolating themselves.

They should be practical and grounded, rather than retreating into abstractions and avoiding reality.

They should serve the people, rather than look down on the masses.

III. Seeking Truth from Facts

Combining classical principles with concrete contemporary practice is the hardest lesson, and one we ought to learn.

Many enthusiasts of Marxism remain at the level of karmic obstructions. They have not yet reached an understanding of classical principles, and they also lack concrete practice. Still less have they reached the point of combining classical principles with concrete practice.

Enthusiasts of Zhuangzi Moving Toward Marxism, Enthusiasts of Marxism Moving Toward Zhuangzi

I previously wondered about “Zhuangzi without Marx, and Marx without Zhuangzi”: why the two camps had seemed so far apart.

This is because moving toward Marxism and moving toward Zhuangzi are two different paths commonly taken by the intellectual petty bourgeoisie, each with its own petty-bourgeois karmic obstructions.

People who move toward Zhuangzi quickly leave behind their interest in grand narratives, social science, and changing history. With their attention turned toward living in the present, they naturally find it difficult to move toward Marxism. Enthusiasts who move toward Marxism commonly remain caught in the confusions described above and are far removed from Zhuangzi. Meanwhile, Marxists of the 19th and 20th centuries had revolutionary questions to address and would not move toward Zhuangzi.

In the cyberpunk era of the first half of the 21st century, if they take the right path, enthusiasts of Marxism will ultimately move toward Zhuangzi, and enthusiasts of Zhuangzi will inevitably move toward Marxism. Some friends and I are examples. Just as Japan’s Chizuko Ueno must study patriarchy and capitalism in order to study feminism.

Loosely speaking, Marx himself is an example of moving from Marxism toward Zhuangzi. In his youth, he was energetic, ambitious, and ready to battle heaven and earth, though his doctoral dissertation was on Epicurus, the Greek Zhuangzi. In his mature years, his outlook was very calm, focused, and grounded in historical materialism. Engels is an example of moving from Zhuangzi toward Marxism. In his youth, he was radiant by nature, sunny in his dealings with others, above worldly vulgarity, and sympathetic to the masses. Although exceptionally capable, he had none of the greed, anger, or delusion surrounding scholarship and career. Yet precisely because he sympathized with workers and sought truth in a practical spirit, he rapidly turned toward communism in Britain.

Many prominent figures of the 20th century lived into the 21st and also turned toward Zhuangzi and a more detached Buddhist outlook, without abandoning revolution. I did not understand this before; now I understand it somewhat. Today’s true Marxists, too, quietly keep their sparks alive within their own lives.

During a historical ebb, protecting our inner strength and our souls is the task of our time.