war and the state (was milton, etc.)

Dennis Robert Redmond dredmond at efn.org
Thu Aug 22 20:10:08 PDT 2002


On Thu, 22 Aug 2002, Gordon Fitch wrote:


> of the Soviet project. Lenin might as well have instituted
> a liberal capitalist social-democratic state in 1918 and
> saved himself, his heirs, and his country a lot of trouble.

Nonsense. Russia was a peasant country thrown into the ghastly cauldron of WW I; no social democracy could exist in the peripheries of the day. The choice was, build up your industrial base at a terrible human cost, or be liquidated by Fascism. Stalinism was the result of that situation, not some bad choice made by a personal leader.


> In the middle of the 19th century, one could delude oneself
> into believing that a little transitional violence, a little
> temporary authority, would advance us toward a better world.
> Today, anyone who reads history ought to know better.

A little temporary violence worked pretty well at ending slavery, toppling monarchies, defeating Fascism, and kicking colonialism out of Africa and Asia -- all thing which *did* advance us towards a better world. Violence is a historical category, not a moral one.

-- Dennis



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