[lbo-talk] Robert Frost Defends Robespierre, Lenin, Mao

SA s11131978 at gmail.com
Sat Apr 25 13:50:29 PDT 2009


Doug Henwood wrote:


>
> On Apr 25, 2009, at 1:26 PM, B. wrote:
>
>> Noam Chomsky (as someone else alluded to) has a very good bit about
>> 1) What Lenin and Trotsky were like when they were out of power and
>> on the sidelines, outsiders looking in, vs. 2) What they were like
>> when they were in power.
>>
>> Perhaps not surprisingly, there is a stark contrast! Trotsky and
>> Lenin, while out of power, were almost libertarian socialist in their
>> sentiments. ("State and Revolution.")
>
> So maybe this has something to do with taking power, rather than their
> innate "jerkiness"?

But it's not like they were somehow betraying their ideals while in power. The belief that society should be turned into a concentration camp in the interests of historical development - that was their ideology, not just some hypocritical behavior.

SA



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