‘Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others.’
‘Above all, avoid falsehood, every kind of falsehood, especially falseness to yourself. Watch over your own deceitfulness and look into it every hour, every minute. Avoid being scornful, both to others and to yourself. What seems to you bad within you will grow purer from the very fact of your observing it in yourself. Avoid fear, too, though fear is only the consequence of every sort of falsehood.’
-Father Zossima in The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Hi, I’ve been reading your blog. I have a PhD in Russian literature and Christianity, and also I joined a revolutionary socialist organisation during the miner’s strike many years before. I’ve also been involved with the Orthodox Church for years ( my father was Ukranian). However, I’ve also now recently joined another, different revolutionary socialist organisation, years later, whilst retaining my Christianity.
It seems that your experience of Marxism and Trotskyism comes almost entirely from your time with the Militant tendency? They were Indeed an unpleasant bunch of sectarian control freaks who preached a very vulgarized and simplistic variety of Marxism. But surely you know that there were, and are, alternatives to them?
As for Dosteyevsky, although he attracts a certain type of idolatry from some, he was essentially a third rate journalist rather than an artist, and also a reactionary and anti Semitic Great Russian nationalist. Tolstoy is far superior to him.
Its entirely up to you what you choose to do, but it really isn’t simply a choice between a discredited and now antiquated form of Marxism ( like Ted Grant’s) and a slow decline into the worst forms of Christianity. Yours in Solidarity, Phil.
Hey there,
Yes, the IMT is indeed one of two successor organisations to the Militant Tendency (along with Peter Taaffe’s CWI). And I am aware that their interpretation of Marxism isn’t the only one, but I am convinced that Marxism is inherently flawed, thanks to the critiques of it by people like Leszek Kolakowski. That said, if I was a Marxist I would certainly not be a Grantite or a Trotskyist.
I am not an uncritical admirer of Dostoevsky. I dislike his anti-Semitism and Great Russian nationalism, though I think that The Brothers Karamazov is one of the greatest books ever written. (I’ve read it twice in just two months). I have not read any Tolstoy though I have War and Peace and Anna Karenina on my shelf and am desperate to read it soon.