Ya know, its something I think about a lot. Not sure I could give my own answer right at the moment. Definitely isnt the idealist liberal version though. I think its interesting to think about where "democracy" fits in the base/superstructure "spectrum". Is it a characteristic that creates a freer more socialist society, or is it an outcome of one?

Makes it interesting to see what traore is gonna be able to do, I'm watching it closely because it'll probably offer answers to some of these questions. Traore and the Burkinabe people have been keen on a Sankara 2.0 and they've learned their fucking lesson. They believe in themselves and if Traore can fucking survive, West Africa is going to be one of the first places to thoroughly shed their Western brainworms and do it fast (10 years if they develop rapidly). I think Russia and China both see it worthwhile to work with AES for mutual benefit.

Is this not pretty much the MTW take?

"We aren't going to see a revolution and implementation of socialism in the imperial core/most industrialized areas. It is much more likely tohappen at the edges of the empire, where capitalism is present but weak. We have seen this in Russia, China, and pretty much everywhere people succeeded boverthrowing capitalism (regardless of whether you agree with the decisions that were made after/since."

So yeah China is the most important country right now "we are entering a Chinese century" yes sure, but AES is getting very important to socialism, very quickly.

Anyway, got a bit off topic...