[lbo-talk] Bakunin on Marx

[Tayssir John Gabbour]

On 6/30/07, Lenin's Tomb <leninstombblog at googlemail.com> wrote:
> Why don't you read Bakunin's letter to Albert Richard? Despite his
> wholesome 'anti-authoritarian' abuse of communists as elitist and
> authoritarian, he plotted an "invisible dictatorship", which his
> elite and secret organisation would run after the revolution. Say
> what you like about the Bolsheviks, but they never tried to make
> themselves invisible except to the Tsarist monarchy. Bakunin was
> deeply authoritarian: it doesn't get any conspiratorial and elitist
> than what he had in mind. In fact, there is a huge tradition of
> authoritarianism and elitism within anarchism, and it usually
> expresses itself in terms of a mania for secrecy, conspiracy,
> aversion to the masses, etc (cf Goldman's views about the ignorant
> masses and the need for intelligent minorities).

I suspect there's a corrupting influence when you call yourself a
partisan of an -ism. This self identification can pressure people into
dishonesty, because of loyalty to that community.

Though an advantage of anarchism is at least that it's not tied to
specific people; that's why it's not called Bakuninism, Malatestinism
or something.

Some of the most sensible, knowledgeable criticisms of anarchism I've
heard come from within anarchism. So for example, there was an
illuminating presentation at an anarchist conference, called "The
Anarchism of Fools: Conspiracy Theory as a Substitute for Social
Critique." And the first time I heard the term "anarcho-wingnut," it
was from a talk at the same conference. (Maybe a different year of the
same conference.)

And we'll find terrible opinions from any figure. Take Bertrand
Russell, Chomsky's hero. IIRC, Finkelstein pointed out that Russell
had pretty bad views concerning Arabs in Palestine. Did that
invalidate the overall importance of Russell's views? I doubt it. But
I would raise an eyebrow when confronted with a self-described
Russellist, just as anyone would with a "Newtonite."

Tayssir