George Eaton, New Statesman: Why Antonio Gramsci is the Marxist thinker for our times
The late Italian philosopher's concept of hegemony was startlingly prescient.
At the trial of Antonio Gramsci in 1928, the prosecutor declared: “We must stop this brain from working for 20 years.” Gramsci, the former leader of the Italian Communist Party and a gifted Marxist theoretician and journalist, was sentenced to two decades’ imprisonment by Benito Mussolini’s fascist government.
Yet confinement marked the flowering, rather than the decay, of Gramsci’s thought. He embarked on an epic intellectual pursuit with the aim of an enduring legacy. His Prison Notebooks, as they became known, comprised 33 volumes and 3,000 pages of history, philosophy, economics and revolutionary strategy. Though permitted to write, Gramsci was denied access to Marxist works and was forced to use code to evade the prison censors. In 1937, having long been refused adequate health care (his teeth fell out and he was unable to digest solid foods), Gramsci died, aged 46.
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WNU Editor: I am sure for some Italian Communists he is the new "messiah" .... and for neo-Marxists elsewhere someone new/old to wrap their arms around. As for everyone else who knows what it is like to live in a Communist system and in a free market society (like yours truly) .... we just have to shake our heads wondering why people still believe in this stuff.
7 comments:
Communism killed more than 100m+ during the 20th century. Marxists will always say, well that's because they weren't real revolutions, but how many do you need before you understand that communism is evil? Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Castro, Ceacescu, etc..
MAGA!
WNU Editor,
You grew up in the Soviet Union so you obviously knew first hand what this was like. When I was young and growing up I had the good fortune of knowing a number of people who either grew up themselves in the Soviet Union or knew people who did so, in a way, I think it would be correct to say I knew about this second and third hand. they did a good job of explaining to me the horrors of this system.
As I think you have pointed out, you "bought the t-shirt, wore the t-shirt etc" and are not interested in doing so ever again. If this is a misunderstanding of precisely what you posted, I apologize and please feel free to correct. Due to the second and third hand education I received I was never tempted to buy or wear this "t-shirt" and learned to recognize the con artists who would try and sell me this "t-shirt" and/or get me to "try it on," "wear it" etc.
You further pointed out that there are more communists in the "west" than there are/were in the former Soviet Union. The people I knew who directly experienced it or those who knew those who directly experienced essentially told me the same thing that you posted and that you father told you.
I think this brings us to the real reason why Russia is despised today by some and why fantastic tales of Russian interference in various areas must be concocted regardless of how much damage this doing to America and/or the "west." You see to a number of very powerful people the wrong side won Cold War 1 and to make matters worse for them Russia has thoroughly rejected communism as an economic model for Russia. For this, the Russian leadership and the Russian people can never be forgiven.
Already there is an active de facto coup attempt against a duly elected president of the United States an active effort to undermine the will of the British people with regards to BREXIT. These people seem perfectly willing to disenfranchise the voters in order to get their way. To h!ll with elections they say. Their egos are to large to admit that perhaps their messages were so bad that there was no way to "dress it up," their candidate was atrocious, etc, and the people rejected what they were/are peddling. Their egos and desire for power and control simply mean they cannot admit that they were rejected by the people. It has to be some outside nefarious force they say!!
These are the new Bolsheviks/Marxists. They are perfectly willing to run roughshod over electoral processes to get their way and they are perfectly willing to disenfranchise, demonize, and deny the rights of millions in order to try and have their way. The next question is will they go to the level of killing the numbers of people the Bolsheviks/Marxists of old did in order to achieve their way? Will the people allow this or will there be an uprising against them? What will the militaries of America and the "west" do? Unfortunately the US military leadership does not inspire any confidence to do the right thing at this point.
B. Poster
The West is still far away from having the same horrors that gripped the Soviet Union when it was around .... or what is North Korea today. But the threat is always there.
WNU Editor,
Thank you for the reply to my post and thank you very much for your blog!! Based upon what I was told by those who were there I agree with you that the "west" is still far from the horrors of the Soviet Union. "But the threat is always there." As those people I knew explained regularly, we need to be ever vigilant.
While no one I knew was around when the Bolsheviks took over, they did tell me that these things start small. Already certain people seem perfectly okay with a de facto coup against a de facto president and they seem perfectly okay with trying to thwart the will of the British people in trying to undermine BREXIT. They've done this to point of inventing fantastic tales of Russian "meddling" and absurd stories of nefarious efforts to get BREXIT passed. No lie is to big for them to tell in order to try and get their agenda through. It causes me to wonder will they, at some point, go the level of mass murder the old Soviet Union went to in order to advance their agenda and acquire more power.
I suspect they will fail. Men like Stalin, while evil, had to actually be smart and somewhat grounded in reality or so it would seem in order to acquire such power. I think the "elites" in America and the "west" actually believe their own lies!! I do not think they are stupid. I think it is a case of ideology which can make otherwise smart people dumb.
B. Poster,
" Men like Stalin, while evil, had to actually be smart" instead of smart, the word should be cunning.
James,
Thank you for the reply. Perhaps you are right. "Cunning" may well be a better description. I might even go a step or two further and describe Stalin as an "evil genius."
With that said today's American elites are neither smart, nor are they cunning, and they definitely are not geniuses. The editor once described large organizations as often being fat, slow, dumb, and ugly. Unfortunately this typically fits the US government to a tee, especially the leadership class. Those carrying out the day to day operations aren't to bad and don't deserved to be lumped with that.
Furthermore the description of fat, slow, dumb, and ugly applies to things like the Clinton campaign and the pro-EU campaign in the United Kingdom. The stupid part especially is especially an apt description. These people are to stupid to even understand that they are stupid.
This manifests itself in several ways. 1.)In HRC's case the candidate is hideously "ugly" in terms the positions taken. 2.)The organization while having vast resources is to stupid to even know what to do and to arrogant to learn combined with being fat and slow made it problematic to respond even if they knew they needed to. 3.)This leads to bad candidate (how do you dress up a pig), bad positions that the American people don't support, and bad marketing. Of course, again how do you dress up a pig.
In contrast team Trump embodies the opposite characteristics. Fast, brilliant, lean, and beautiful. Will how one campaigned necessarily translate into a good presidency? Not necessarily. POTUS Trump has been deeply disappointing in a number of areas especially on foreign policy.
The same dynamic generally applies to the pro-EU faction in the United Kingdom. There organization was fat, slow, dumb, and ugly. In contrast, pro-BREXIT was lean, fast, brilliant, and beautiful. For pro-EU, bad message (the EU was not/is not/cannot work for Britons)(no way to dress up the pig, etc). Pro-BREXIT positive message presented well to the voters.
Team Clinton and pro-EU simply cannot bring themselves to admit they were beaten by better people who are/were more in tune with what the people need and want than they are. These people have indicated by their words and actions that they will act in ways to try and restore their positions even if it means disenfranchising the voters. Perhaps the fact that these people and their organizations are fat, slow, dumb, and ugly may be a blessing. What happens when fat, slow, dumb, and ugly has a conflict with fast, lean, brilliant, and beautiful?
Fat, slow, dumb, and ugly is likely stronger in terms of raw strength and has vastly more resources to draw on. The longer that fast, beautiful, lean, and brilliant can stay in the fight the better their chances I think. It's going to be important to use cunnings, speed, and brilliance to stay a step or two ahead of and out of the reach of fat, slow, ugly, and stupid. If they can do this, use their speed and brilliance to land a few blows of their own and continue to dazzle with their beauty they can win this fight. Furthermore there is nothing like dazzling beauty to gain followers. Once more followers are achieved they can really be a force and use the stupidity and arrogance of fat, slow, dumb, and ugly against them.
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