Compare and Contrast

What Margot Honecker said with regards to school children also applies to each FDJ collective: "Above all, we must present knowledge in a way that takes the social experiences of school children into consideration. The educational process must involve practical experience that children can make their own, which involves them in solving problems, in participating actively in social life at school, in their political organization, in life in the factory, and in their neighborhood. Communist education cannot be reduced to "moral lessons": it requires educating young people to action."

Alas, still we find that love is in the air:

I started as a canvasser myself, fresh out of college in 1991. I remember those days vividly, from the banyan tree-shaded neighborhoods of south Miami-Dade county to the red bricked streets of south St. Petersburg. It was the hardest work I’ve ever done, but in some ways, the most satisfying. I enjoyed listening to the people I met and engaging in the kind of two-way political interaction that has become nearly extinct in today’s modern world of 30-second commercials (often negative attack ads) and pre-recorded incoming phone messages.

This summer, we are launching our largest citizen outreach effort ever. Our political goal is to reunite our currently fractured congressional delegation in opposition to offshore drilling.

Just as it was in a place not long ago and not far away:

FDJ leaders appropriately devote substantial attention to the content of ideological work in membership meetings, in the study year, and in personal conversations. That is a major part of our propaganda work. These leaders thereby fulfill an important prerequisite of our socialist ideology in working with the youth be relating every question back to the main questions, keeping them as the core of their ideological activity. However, even if we assume that the best method of propagating Marxism-Leninism is to present its actual content, there is still always the question of "how." What are the forms, means, and methods of propaganda? Good propagandists know that the knowledge that must always be at the center of ideological work is not enough. The methods of presentation determine a large part of the effectiveness. That is as true for personal conversation as it is for the FDJ study year, for a youth forum, or for a monthly membership meeting.

Just as there is no great abundance of Banyan trees in Florida, not at least outside of the better parts of any town, there is no longer a DDR, so take heart.