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Image: Grigorii Zinov’ev in 1936,
mugshot taken after his confession
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Just to clear up some recent confusion surrounding my blog, responsibility for the views contained therein, and so on. Some reconsideration and reevaluation of formerly-held opinions — some good old-fashioned самокритика — may well be in order.
The opinions expressed on my blog are mine alone, unless otherwise indicated. (I have occasionally reposted articles and interviews from various other sources). In any case, they do not necessarily reflect the views of any other group or organization. No one else is responsible for them.
Moreover, having maintained this blog for several years now, some of the positions taken in pieces I’ve posted in the past may no longer even reflect my current opinion on a given issue. This doesn’t exonerate me for having written them, of course, but hopefully it will alert the reader to the relative fluidity of my perspective over time.
All of this being said, however, any comments, questions, and criticisms would be welcomed.
No one needs to be “exonerated” for something they said or wrote; the idea that because you wrote such-and-such years ago and later changed your mind about that is a sign of intellectual growth, or at least the ability to remain open to new ideas. The idea that once someone has taken up a political position they are stuck with it for eternity is alien to the philosophy of Marxism/Leninism/Trotskyism.
Stalinists and other renegades from Marxism hold that concept to be true: they beat their opponents into submission by holding the opponents’ ancient written and spoken statements against them. Leninism is utterly opposed to this idea, as proven by Lenin’s political relationship with Trotsky over the years. Stalin’s use of Trotsky’s early “opposition to” Leninism as a club to beat Trotsky down with is an example of political banditry completely alien to Marxism/Leninism/Trotskyism.
If you have something to say: say it. If you change your mind later, no problem. The worst you can be charged with is being in possession of a wildly fluctuating personality that changes direction like a flag in the wind.
If your political opponents – or allies – are going around trying to make themselves look big by beating you down with stuff you wrote years ago, they are not to be trusted themselves; they are using the brutal, discredited methods of Stalin to build their “careers” as “revolutionaries”. People change over time. The Bolsheviks were able to recruit Cossacks into the Red Army, for example! Tsarist officers also served with distinction in the Red Army. We’re quite sure that you don’t have a past like those folks had; yet they were accepted into the ranks of Lenin and Trotsky’s Bolsheviks as front-line fighters for socialism once they had proven in action that they were reliable people. You have nothing that you need to “prove” to anyone: you openly publish your ideas and have the courage to change your philosophy as new data and knowledge presents itself to you. That is the scientific method as applied to politics, and is entirely honorable – and thoroughly in consonance with Marxism/Leninism/Trotskyism. We all have the “right” to be wrong, on occasion. we are all, after all, human and therefore fallible.
“No revolution was ever made by gods”.
IWPCHI
Thanks for the words of support. I wholly agree.
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