Friday, August 2, 2013

Short course on Marxism.

During the first stage of his intellectual rebellion, [Polish intellectual Leszek] Kolakowski relied on Karl Marx’s early philosophical writings. Later, he moved away from Marxism altogether. He saw Marxism as a sophisticated rationalization of social and political resentment, a gigantic, cosmic fantasy of redemption bound to beget new forms of slavery. One of the most impressive essays included in the anthology [Is God Happy? Selected Essays] deals with the Marxist roots of Stalinism. Many on the Left were (and still are) ready to accept the Leninist heredity of Stalinism, yet they found unacceptable connecting the advent of the Bolshevik dystopia to the ideas of Karl Marx. Kolakowski was suspicious of any mechanical determinism, not only in political history, but also in the history of ideas. He did not claim that Marxism did inevitably bequeath totalitarian hubris. But he found in the Marxist dream of complete unity, in the repudiation of pluralism, the premise for the authoritarian experiments that followed. Leninist neo-Jacobin absolutism was rooted, in Kolakowski’s interpretation, in the absolute rejection of the rule of law and the demonization of private property.[1]
Gigantic cosmic fantasy seems strong but it, Marxism, has been a something that has gripped the minds of many otherwise intelligent people who abased themselves in the service of a pathetic revolt against poverty, inequality, downright meanness, or, more to the point, some transient, unchangeable, or inconsequential facet of life common in any age on this planet. Squire Wright better off than you? More influence? More privilege? Why, then. Time for a complete makeover of society. Wife have an irritating laugh? Cheeky kids? Get rid of them. Out and away!

Countless millions have lost their lives in the service of totalitarian regimes, no small number of which murdered and enslaved millions upon millions of their own citizens as a direct result of deliberate state policy devised by thugs and hideous sociopaths handed power to commit great crimes by intellectuals, journalists, artists, operatives and citizens joyfully carrying the banner of Marxist "liberation." An expensive and bloody "liberation" if ever there was one.

Kolakowski, the later philosopher of the Polish Solidarity movement, may not have believed that Marxism inevitably led to totalitarian hubris but that has certainly been the way to bet in light of the slaughter of the last century. Considering how limited government has been destroyed by all manner of constitutional subversion, one can only ponder how a supposedly sovereign people in the home of the brave and the land of the free – with the absolute ultimate of constitutional protections and independent courts with centuries of law protecting individual rights to call upon – could so easily have been head faked and neutered.

Their metrosexual, globalist, secular, historically-ignorant, power-loving, contemptuous, educated elites grasped at globalist mist, embraced scientific and economic flapdoodle, and stole their liberties and it all went down with hardly a whimper of protest. See any unruly street protests ever? God bless Glenn Beck for his work in highlighting the progressive's hate for normal America but he could only organize polite tapioca nothing gatherings centered on "restoring honor." It fires the blood.

Kolakowski was overly generous in thinking that totalitarianism was not the inevitable result of Marxist practice, though I doubt the sum of the man was as naive as that. The piecemeal drift to statist gluttony is unstoppable even without an overt Marxist rationale. Mindless Western populations have loved every step taken in the direction of evisceration of their liberties and in the pursuit of statist fiscal and economic madness.

Perhaps there is some tectonic political interface that is about to shift and restore constitutional government and forever bring to an end the adulation of parasites and revolutionaries (seething with hatred for nature and nature's God), but I don't see it. The re-election of Barack Hussein Obama – the very name of the man alone stuns anyone whose mind is not addled – is a simple but clear indication of the current mile marker on the road to anarchy and tyranny. Considering the disdain the person has for his supposedly native country ("God damn America! God damn America!") and his far-left, terrorist connections, it's a high number indeed.

Pretty much, you can put a fork in the American Republic of old. It had few protectors and the educated classes slobbered over every subversion of it.

Notes
[1] "Why Kolakowski Matters." By Vladimir Tismaneanu, FrontPageMagazine.com, 7/19/13.

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