Against Hypocrisy
The Transhumanist Party and Section XL of the party's platform
The Transhumanist Party
The United States Transhumanist Party or “USTP” is a “big tent” free-to-join political organization created on October 7th, 2014 by the American journalist, entrepreneur, and Libertarian Zoltan Istvan12. Two years after in 2016 the party’s leadership position, that is, the chairperson position, went to Gennady Stolyarov II, a man of many talents, and expertise, as well as a Libertarian persuasion, on November 17, 20163. Since that time the Chairman has remained the same even to this day 7 years later. The officer positions of the party’s various roles have changed a great deal since this time with multiple people of different political leanings and beliefs holding various positions throughout the party’s history4. Along with a diverse and evergrowing membership from most political beliefs such as Progressives, Centrists, Communists, Anarchists, Georgists, Socialists, Libertarians, etc.
The party’s platform is a direct result of past party votes consisting of board participation of its memberships going back to the months of 2017 and forward. Many updates can be done to these platform votes by holding new voting periods in which new and old platform planks would be decided to accommodate the present time. However, out of quite a few concerning platform planks, none is more concerning to the youth, that is to say, Generation Z and Millennials, of which more than 50% view Socialism in a positive light as far as Gen Z goes as well as 50% of Millennials viewing Socialism favorably, than Section XL in the portion titled “Civil Liberties/Individual Freedoms” of the Transhumanist Party’s Platform56. Which in addition to opposing “intolerant interpretations of religious doctrines” opposes “interpretation of secular, non-religious doctrine that results in the rejection of reason, censorship, violation of individual rights, suppression of technological advancement, and attempts to impose certain beliefs by force and/or by legal compulsion” then going on to list Stalinism or Marxism Leninism and Maoism among the non-religious doctrines the party opposes7.
Representing one of the highest forms of the USTP’s hypocrisy on the issue of rights in regards to political views as well as standing against their “big tent” approach, and working towards alienating the youth who hold positive views of Socialism.
Hypocrisy; the why and how?
This particular section is only hypocritical in that it states an open opposition and condemnation of Marxism-Leninism or “Stalinism” and Maoism. Completely and utterly ignoring other ideologies which engage in the rejection of reason, censorship, violation of individual rights, suppression of technological advancement, and attempts to impose certain beliefs by force and/or by legal compulsion such as Capitalism as any type. An example of the rejection of reason within Capitalist society is the unabashed religious dedication to growth and overproduction within Capitalist nations at the expense of both the climate and environment; showing society rather put short-term profits over the long-term health and well-being of the environment and entire human species8. In terms of censorship, one must only point to the sheer lack of any critical major news/media outlets. All of these are funded by various governments or corporations to push narrow narratives under the border pro-capitalist line. It is subsequently telling that there are no Communistic, Socialistic, Anarchistic, or other new networks in the mainstream media and this is for a reason that has been conveniently ignored by the USTP. Concerning violation of individual rights, both in the present day and in the past the United States criminalized membership and support of the American Communist Party in the “Communist Control Act of 1954”; more shockingly, this law has not gone away in some states and has been revamped in a modern context such as in the state of Texas where a Communist can not run for public office point-blank and can be fired from any public job if they are found to in fact be a Communist910. Furthermore, in the state of Texas, a Communist can face 20 years or more in prison plus up to $20,000 in fines if they encourage people to protest and practice their first amendment right via assembly, due to the laws on “Sedition, Sabotage, And Communism” any expression of one’s views through protest can very well ruin their lives and land them in jail1112.
All this is not covering the countless examples of historically Capitalist driven Anti-Communism such as the McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950 which prevented any Communist nationwide from serving in certain representative capacities and for other purposes Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 which criminalized many forms of speech deemed “disloyal language” whether printed or spoken, about the government of the United States. One of the most famous victims of the Sedition Acts was Eugene V. Debs who was thrown in jail. Forced to run for president out of the Socialist Party while in prison. Not to mention the House Un-American Activities Committee or “HUAC”, the Smith Act of 1940, as well as form N-400 of the citizen’s naturalization application in which potential citizens are asked if they are or were a part of a Communist party or any other “totalitarian party potentially banning Communists and the likes from getting citizenship which is still in place today, and the nearly countless Anti-Communist measures taken abroad such as in Grenada, Chile, Cuba, El Salvador, Nicaragua, USSR, Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Vietnam, Korea, Angola, The Congo, etc.
From all this, it becomes clear from both a historical standpoint and a present standpoint that nation-states will do anything to maintain and preserve their status quo. Be they Capitalist, Communist, Socialist, Monarchist, or any other ideologies that have held power. Singling out Marxism-Leninism “Stalinism” and Maoism is thus seen as hypocritical and should be taken off of Section XL in an effort of historical accuracy and political fairness.
The “Big Tent” Approach and Comradery
As spoken on earlier the USTP takes a big tent approach to Transhumanism in an effort to unite most or all ideologies towards a Transhumanist future. This approach would appear that the party does not condemn or discriminate against any political ideologies which do not warrant such things, an exception being Fascism, a form of Capitalism. Yet the party violates this approach by condemning Marxism-Leninism and Maoism, its historical allies, and the very platform it sprung into being off of as well as subsequently developed within. For instance, it was none other than Joseph Stalin who saw the value in Alexander Bogdanov's blood transfusion treatments and hence funded his blood transfusion endeavors heavily13. Furthermore in terms of the Bolsheviks, which Bogdanov and Lenin founded, when Lenin died in 1924 it was the Biocosmists-Immortalists who advocated bringing him back to life stating “The consciousness of workers and the oppressed all over the world could never reconcile itself with the death of Lenin”14. Lastly, even Mao Zedong himself had Biocosmist, Russian Cosmists, and Transhumanist beliefs stating "The life of dialectics is the continuous movement toward opposites. Mankind will also finally meet its doom. When the theologians talk about doomsday, they are pessimistic and terrify people. We say the end of mankind is something which will produce something more advanced than mankind. Mankind is still in its infancy”15.
Above all Transhumanism, as is known today would of likely never come to full fruition if not for the Russian Cosmist movement and its various figures and off-shoot movements16. According to Anton Vidokle at the National Autonomous University of Mexico “Had it not been for the revolution in Russia and the total radicalization of society, cosmism would likely remain a kind of peculiar but insignificant development. But the mixture of cosmism and communism, and the acceleration that occurred in Russia just before and after the revolution, were like pouring fuel on a fire”17.
Condemning the ideological/political and historical past of Transhumanism in part or as a whole as well as the people who adhere to those ideologies in the current day is both divisive and counterproductive. The Transhumanist Party can grow if it drops these condemnations, appeal more to the vastly radicalized youth that exists today, and truly make itself a “big tent” party.
Towards an improved party for a better future; a Transhumanist future!
https://transhumanist-party.org/faq/#Q_Founded
https://transhumanist-party.org/faq/#Q_CurrentOfficers
https://mast.house.gov/2023/2/denouncing-socialism
https://transhumanist-party.org/platform/#CivilLiberties
https://law.justia.com/codes/texas/2022/government-code/title-5/subtitle-a/chapter-557/subchapter-c/section-557-022/
https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/GV/htm/GV.557.htm
https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1071/communist-control-act-of-1954
https://drvitelli.typepad.com/providentia/2018/11/the-immortality-experiments.html
https://books.google.com/books?id=Kumg5iYYkWkC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0&fbclid=IwAR1-z-qzwSeIIywqQBr6iEn1M3Q_9vJ3_9F70ps_PRSlULPi5LzpWBNRjqA#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://www.lacan.com/zizmaozedong.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20200203092903/http://sovieteramuseum.com/?product=art-works-by-russian-cosmism-painter-xx-xxi-ct-catalogue-of-exhibition-2013
If they weren't too offended by Section XL, I wonder what some of your non-transhumanist compatriots would think about our platform as a whole (but thanks for bringing up something that doesn't feel right to you about it :) ).