Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost, and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, ‘Self-Reliance’
Anyone who has read my post on Janja Lalich and her concept of bounded choice in a cult will appreciate this piercing observation by Nietzsche: 301. “STRENGTH OF CHARACTER.”-“What I have said once I will do.” – This manner of thinking is believed to indicate great strength of character. How many actions are accomplished, not … Read more
And though I hope not unscathed to go, Who conquers me shall find a stubborn foe. The time hath been, when no harsh sound would fall From lips that now may seem imbued with gall; Nor fools nor follies tempt me to despise The meanest thing that crawl’d beneath my eyes: But now, so callous … Read more
In Alan Woods’ recent article from last month on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, he has adopted a markedly more pessimistic tone about the Russian invasion: It is difficult to say how the war is progressing. The information of the military situation in the media is so sparse as to be almost non-existent. And the constant predictions … Read more
Over the past month I have read both Jonathan Sperber’s Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life and Gareth Stedman Jones’ Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion. Both books have their strengths and weaknesses. Both do a convincing job of correcting the record on Marx and his relationship to the doctrine that bears his name. They put him … Read more
‘Dialectics is foresight over astonishment.’-Leon Trotsky ‘The imperialist propaganda machine insists that Putin has failed in his objective, and that the Russian army’s advance has been halted by the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian army. …Ultimately, it is the balance of forces that will determine the outcome. And that is overwhelmingly in favour of Russia. … Read more
484. GOING OUR OWN WAY.-When we take the decisive step, and make up our minds to follow our own path, a secret is suddenly revealed to us: it is clear that all those who had hitherto been friendly to us and on intimate terms with us judged themselves to be superior to us, and are … Read more
Back in 2014, the IMT denounced the Maidan Revolution as ‘fascist’ and celebrated the ‘anti-fascist resistance’ of the Eastern Ukrainian separatists, backed by Russian imperialism. At a pro-Russia solidarity gathering, Woods spoke. Hear him at 6:52 criticising Putin for not invading sooner! That’s aged well. Aside from the fact that Putin did in fact invade … Read more
“To imagine that a social revolution is conceivable without revolts of small nations in the colonies and in Europe, without the revolutionary outbursts of the petty bourgeoisie, with all its prejudices, without the movement of non-class-conscious proletarian and semi-proletarian masses against the oppression of the landlords, the church, the monarchy, the foreign yoke, etc. – to imagine … Read more