My journey started out of curiosity & some pretty major soul searching & long before I had any idea who Bob Avakian was. I realized at a point that I had no idea what communism was, or socialism, or capitalism, anarchism, etc. I wanted to know what I might identify with. So I pulled out a dictionary. Having been told my entire life that communism or socialism are bad, & capitalism good, all it took was reading the two definitions to make me skeptical of what I’d been told. I still wasn’t completely convinced of anything so I kept reading & I kept asking questions & more and more I felt like I’d just been being lied to. Or at least being taught by people who were just as misinformed as I had been. My curiosity also had a religious element. So I read the Bible & the Koran. It didn’t take long to realize it was superstitious nonsense. Sexist and racist to boot. Meanwhile I’d been writing letters to a relatively estranged family member, my aunt thousands of miles away. Never once did she push her political beliefs on me. In fact she advocated sternly that I think for myself. In one letter I mentioned my frustration concerning religion & having been raised catholic. She sent me a book, Away With All Gods! by Bob Avakian, & for the first time in a couple years I felt like I wasn’t being lied to or conned. I had something tangible, something that made sense. I subscribed to Revolution & now follow them online.
This movement is not about a cult. It is not about brainwashing. In fact it’s the polar opposite. My son knows where I stand on politics, but I don’t push him one way or another. All I ask of him is to keep asking questions. Keep educating himself.
If you do your research, you’ll learn that Bob’s movement is about as altruistic as one can be. He’s spent his life on this. Not for himself, but for all of us.