But the bourgeoisie is more afraid of the movement of the masses than of reaction. Hence the striking, incredible weakness of the liberals in politics, their absolute impotence. Hence the endless series of equivocations, falsehoods, hypocrisies and cowardly evasions in the entire policy of the liberals, who have to play at democracy to win the support of the masses but at the same time are deeply anti-democratic, deeply hostile to the movement of the masses, to their initiative, their way of “storming heaven”, as Marx once described one of the mass movements in Europe in the last century.
Well that observation certainly still holds up.
The utopia of the Narodniks and Trudoviks is the day dreaming of the petty proprietor, who stands midway between the capitalist and the wage-worker, about abolishing wage slavery without a class struggle.
As a Canadian, the name Trudovik for this tendency seems spookily appropriate.
I find the most frustrating aspect of modern day politics is that all the arguments we’re having have already been had, and settled. Back at the start of the 20th century, these debates were fresh and people genuinely didn’t know how things might turn out. Today, we have the wealth of history showing which arguments proved to be correct, and people just ignore it.
Well that observation certainly still holds up.
As a Canadian, the name Trudovik for this tendency seems spookily appropriate.
I find the most frustrating aspect of modern day politics is that all the arguments we’re having have already been had, and settled. Back at the start of the 20th century, these debates were fresh and people genuinely didn’t know how things might turn out. Today, we have the wealth of history showing which arguments proved to be correct, and people just ignore it.
I wasted precious time reading Mark Fisher and David Graeber when Lenin was there this whole time.
I wish I started reading Lenin sooner as well.