war and the state

[Dddddd0814 at aol.com]

"To _blame_ Lenin and Trotsky would be to moralize; but I 
think Lenin's and Trotsky's morals would be of little 
practical concern to anyone. However, what I did was 
examine some of their ideas, ask whether the ideas seemed to 
result in behavior, and if so, what the behavior led to in 
history -- in the material and social conditions of the 
people who were affected by them." 

Yet, if one advances the supreme premise of idealism-- that "behavior" leads 
to history-- then, the historical figures in question *are* to blame.

An idealist premise of history-- rather than materialist one-- necessitates 
all "ideas" as subjective products of individuals, independent from the 
objective forces that motivate them. (i.e. the bourgeois claptrap about the 
"power of ideas.") Thus in this context "ideas" are no different from 
"morals", the "worst" of which both are abstractly imposed from above and 
without by eccentric egotists.

Best,
David