(1115)(1146)
20. We may have had this one
Jenna Ellis has some question marks next to her, herself … we covered it some time back. However, she may be right about this:
19. Moo corner
18. Another called for Rupert and Farage to talk
… I replied:
17. IYE and the Bolsheviks
What is to be done?”
Vladimir Lenin published What Is to Be Done?1 — the operational blueprint for the Bolshevik Revolution — in 1902.
It’s typically read as political theory, but it’s actually more usefully read as a description of how to shift a population from passive discontent to active revolution — without the population understanding where it’s ultimately being taken.
And this knowledge is highly relevant in today’s charged environment.
By the turn of the twentieth century, strikes were common, and discontent was widespread in Russia2. Lenin argued that none of this was sufficient on its own, because workers could only develop ‘trade union consciousness’3. They could sense that things were bad and organise around grievances at the local level, but they did not ultimately grasp why things were bad, nor determine what to do about it.
Lenin didn’t claim the workers were stupid. Rather, he observed that ‘correct’ analysis doesn’t emerge naturally — it has to be introduced by people who have already arrived at the ‘correct’ framework: the vanguard.
The vanguard’s job is to interpret grievance through the ‘correct’ lens and guide the population toward the preferred conclusion. To Lenin, revolutionary consciousness ‘could only be brought to them from without’; the workers provide the energy; the vanguard provides the direction.
But if the vanguard should guide the masses toward ‘correct’ consciousness, it would logically also have to protect them from the ‘incorrect’ sort — because these would lead elsewhere but the ‘correct’ destination. To this end, Lenin identified a type of opposition leader whom he called ‘economists’, who channel people into non-revolutionary directions through ‘incorrect’ prescriptions.
The economists are worse than outright enemies, because they occupy the space where revolutionary consciousness should develop; they hoover up the discontented, and thus prevent actual transformation.….”
Read on MacDuff…🔽
https://escapekey.substack.com/p/what-is-to-be-done
Interesting comments thread too.
JH: And just to add, yet again, my same old same old:
16. Walkies
Departed 1021, back here 1037. E.T. 16 mins for the (near) kilometre. Recovery 8 minutes … long time. Better than two days ago, less doddery, but still some way to go. Various obstacle courses along the way.
Along the way … friendly folk, plus two tugs side by side. You ever been close beside a tug? Fab boats. One guy waved, the other, grumpy, ignored. His loss.