[lbo-talk] Revolution

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Sat Aug 16 07:00:46 PDT 2003


The central argument against socialist revolution is, typically, put in the deceptive form of a question -- deceptive for many reasons but primarily because questions necessarily conceal their preconceptions, and hence obscure the actual issues. The questioner demands that he/she be provided with a scenario for revolution (a blueprint, a plan). Such a question presupposes (a) that the future is predictable and (b) given the predictability of the future, events not predictable (i) will not happen and (ii) need not be prepared for.

The presuppositions conceal the existence of a question which _does_ need consideration in the present, though the conditions under which it will become immediately relevant are unpredictable. There will of course be revolutions (i.e., dissolutions under chaotic conditions of present regimes).

What is not at all certain (I would say what is unlikely) is that such revolutions (a) will be _socialist_ revolutions and (b) whether, if socialist and if (temporarily) successful, such revolutions will _remain_ socialist rather than succumb to counter-revolution (internally or externally generated). We can then say that not only are revolutions (i.e. chaotic collapse of regimes) certain, but so is the counter-revolution. The deceptive demand for a scenario for revolution, then, is obscurantist by its nature (whether by intention or not is irrelevant and unanswerable in most cases), for it forecloses the vital questions of how, within non-revolutionary conditions preparations can be made for the (concretely unforseeable) conditions of chaos which will periodically emerge and reemerge so long as capitalism survives.

Carrol



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