andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>
> I don't pretend to have all the answers, and maybe you
> don't either, but I noticed the following remark at
> the end of your long post on What We Are Doing Wrong,
> and I may be misinterpreting it, but it seems to be
> that it could be read as saying that big part of our
> problem is that we don't drum the toy Bolsheviks out
> of our ranks, denounce them as scum, make sure they
> don't get involved in our organizing or a place on our
> platforms.
Early in the history of the Lenin list there was this character, Flo somebody, who seemed to think the route to revolution was to give verbal obeisance to Stalin. In the 'bolshevik bashers' we find _exactly_ the same political premise, which is merely a translation into politics of the xtian principle that to believe is to be saved.
It is this belief in the importance of belief as belief (Whosoever believeth in me shall be whatever) that, I think, should be labelled dogmatism. In both cases the dogmatist insists upon the ritual observance of certain verbal pieties. And in both cases the practical (intended?) result is the destruction of solidarity. On the one hand, no one who does not bow to Stalin will be accepted. On the other hand, no one who does not spit at Stalin will be accepted. I really see no practical difference between ritual stalinists and ritual anti-stalinists.
Carrol