Nah, I disagree. Revolution is not unhinged and those who embrace it as unhinged are usually what we’d call “adventurist”. It’s more that what looks unhinged in one context looks sensible in another. That’s why I say that in the desperate times of Czarist Russia, the Revolutionary Catechism makes more sense as deriving from those material conditions. You can point to specific revolutionaries who embraced those works after the fact, but many of the ones you named died/failed to succeed in revolutionary goals. Might sound harsh, and I’m not saying they didn’t contribute to the struggle (hell, Blood in My Eye was one of the first reads for me when I was getting introduced to marxism and it’s a good book); the Panthers were up against a hell of a lot in the belly of the beast and did the best they could. I believe that. But we have to grapple with the realities of what has succeeded and what hasn’t.
I just think ultimately it’s the level of commitment necessary to win. And it is totally and completely self-sacrificing. Everyone that has won did so in some shape or manner, whether among the leadership or among the rest of the party. Many many thousands willingly self sacrificed. Revolutionary conditions are simply like that, whether it’s in Russia, Cuba, China or anywhere else that revolution succeeded, the Catechism comes up again and again among the inner-circles of the fully committed revolutionaries, the people spending every waking minute of every single day committed to achieving revolution with full commitment.
I see no problem with seeing it as unhinged because it frankly is. Lenin died for it. Che died for it. The Panthers died for it. I see no problem in that though. We can be under no delusion that there will be no sacrifice for revolution.
Anyway I don’t really have much more to argue with you about per se. We still disagree, but I understand why you feel the way you do and I think I’ve gotten across my position as well. Ultimately neither of us have any impact one what is going to happen, it’s spectator squabbling.
I just think ultimately it’s the level of commitment necessary to win. And it is totally and completely self-sacrificing. Everyone that has won did so in some shape or manner, whether among the leadership or among the rest of the party. Many many thousands willingly self sacrificed. Revolutionary conditions are simply like that, whether it’s in Russia, Cuba, China or anywhere else that revolution succeeded, the Catechism comes up again and again among the inner-circles of the fully committed revolutionaries, the people spending every waking minute of every single day committed to achieving revolution with full commitment.
I see no problem with seeing it as unhinged because it frankly is. Lenin died for it. Che died for it. The Panthers died for it. I see no problem in that though. We can be under no delusion that there will be no sacrifice for revolution.
Anyway I don’t really have much more to argue with you about per se. We still disagree, but I understand why you feel the way you do and I think I’ve gotten across my position as well. Ultimately neither of us have any impact one what is going to happen, it’s spectator squabbling.