PERSONALITY CULTS: INDIVIDUALIST IDEOLOGY ROOTED IN 
CLASS SOCIETY
   
   There is great confusion among Marxist-Lenininists and 
those claiming to be Marxist-Leninists concerning the nature 
of personality cults. The Revolutionary Communist Party 
rivals only the Moonie cult in posting meaningless 
photographs of their leader. Huge pictures of Bob Avakian are 
often accompanied by as little as a slogan in small letters 
"Revolution in the 80s, Go For It!"
   Ever since the first ruling class formed, there have been 
those who set themselves up as exploiters in society based on 
magic and other forms of mysticism, especially divinity. 
Magic, witchcraft and religion are all equivalent 
philosophically speaking. They all involve idealism.
   Whoever makes claims to a role in history does not need a 
photograph plastered all over to do so. Mao Zedong's role in 
history is no less despite his saying as early as 1970 that 
"the talk about 'establishing in a big way' and 'establishing 
in a special way' is also improper. Authority and prestige 
can be established only naturally through struggle and 
practice. They can not be established artificially. Prestige 
established artificially will inevitably collapse." 
(Committee for a Proletarian Party now ORU, "Cultural 
Revolution in China," 121) One can not help thinking of 
Avakian's pictures and Raymond Lotta's book billed by the RCP 
as the first significant deepening of Lenin's theory of 
imperialism. (Revolution, Spring 1984, 52)
   The reason for the RCP's marketing hype for its literature 
and photographs is the old ruling class ideology that denies 
that the masses are the makers of history. Unfortunately, the 
RCP flim-flam denies the role of Mao, the Chinese CP and the 
Chinese masses in the deepening of Lenin's theory of 
imperialism.
   Worst of all, these idealists try to claim a legacy in 
Marxism-Leninism Mao Zedong Thought. For the record, Mao 
himself did admit to Edgar Snow that a little personality 
cult was necessary for the Cultural Revolutionaries to 
maintain the dictatorship of the proletariat. However, he 
changed his tune radically after he was able (and forced) to 
do without the support of Lin Biao--the second in command to 
Mao during the Cultural Revolution and a subsequent traitor 
to that revolution.
   In a famous letter to Jiang Qing in 1966 that was 
circulated after the death of Lin Biao, Mao explained that he 
had for the first time in his life to make an alliance 
against his will. Among other things Mao said, "I would never 
have thought that the few books I have written could have 
such magic powers. Now he [Lin Biao] has sung the praises of 
my works, the whole country will follow his example.... My 
friend and his colleagues have presented me with a fait 
accompli. It looks as if there is no other course left open 
to me than to give my approval." (Organization for 
Revolutionary Unity, The Cultural Revolution in China, 121) 
Lin Biao had been the most powerful military commander in the 
country at a time after the Great Leap when Mao no longer 
directly held a major government role. In 1972, Lin died 
after a coup attempt. At about the same time, Mao said in 
discussions that he only wanted to be remembered as a 
teacher, not a "Great Helmsman" or any of the other "Four 
Greats." which he called a "nuisance." (Edgar Snow, The Long 
Revolution, 71, 169, 170)
   Mao himself explained the problem with personality cults.
   "The way in which absolute authority is presented is 
improper. There has never been any single absolute authority. 
All authorities are relative. All absolute things exist in 
relative things, just as absolute truth is the total of 
innumerable relative truths, and absolute truth exists only 
in relative truths." (ORU, 121) To justify a personality cult 
by that fact that there are differing levels of truth and 
understanding is to evade what Mao has already addressed.
   Nor does Mao ever approve of his being made into a genius.
   "To be a genius is to be a bit more intelligent. But 
genius does not depend on one person or a few people. It 
depends on a party, the party which is the vanguard of the 
proletariat. Genius is dependent on the mass line, on 
collective wisdom." (Ibid., 122) Furthermore, "I am no 
genius. I read Confucian books for six years and capitalist 
books for seven. I did not read Marxist-Leninist books until 
1918, so how can I be a genius?" (Stuart Schram ed., Chairman 
Mao Talks to the People, 293)
   Proletarian ideology dictates that the masses be given 
credit for making history even when priests, intellectuals 
and the bourgeoisie try to claim that God, the Id, Walter 
Mondale or Bob Avakian are making history. The task of 
establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat is nothing 
less than the conscious expropriation of the class that has 
taken credit for the initiative and labor of the working 
classes.
   If ever there were a "genius" or key fighter for class 
consciousness, Karl Marx would have to be one. He made his 
proletarian stance clear on this issue. "Neither of us [Marx 
himself and Engels] cares a straw for popularity. A proof of 
this is, for example, that, because of aversion to any 
personality cult, I have never permitted the numerous 
expressions of appreciation from various countries with which 
I was pestered during the existence of the International to 
reach the realm of publicity, and have never answered them 
except occasionally by a rebuke. When Engels and I first 
joined the secret Communist Society we made it a condition 
that everything tending to encourage superstitious belief in 
authority was to be removed from the statutes." (Karl Marx in 
Robert Tucker The Marx-Engels Reader 2nd ed., 521)