Present as History.
As present, it never makes sense.
[CLIP]
(A speculative post -- partly inspired by the changing 'flavor' of posts on this list over the last week, as writers shifted their focus on the Occupation event(s).)
Doug wonders: All that shit that Lenin wrote? Waste of time.
Well, I got and am getting quite a bit from Lenin; I suppose everyone has to decide for him/herself. A poster not long ago on Marxism-Thaxis was pushing the necessity of developing a "Party of a New Type." He meant a Democratic Centralist Party. That's the meaning generations of revolutionaries have gotten out of that phrse from WITBD. And they have read the whole of Lenin in that light. I did for quite a few years back in the '70s and '80s. Now it turns out Lenin meant a non-conspiratorial party, which all preceding Russian Revolutionary parties had been. He wanted a party that carried on agitation and propaganda, which required a certain 'openness." Hence it needed the guidance of "professionals" -- i.e., people skilled in not getting arrested while carrying out illegal agitation.
Frost offers a nice gloss on my post, though of course one will have to pick and choose among various ways to view/use his poem.
Carrol
^^^^^^^ CB: What should be taken from Lenin there is "concrete analysis of the concrete situation". The Party of a New Type for the concrete situation of USA Today is being formed in Occupy Wall Street. They are confronting the ruling class at the point of rule. They have framed the mass message in terms of the main class contradiction of capitalism at this time in history, between the Corporate Monopolies and the People. There will have to be some Centralism, unity of masses around a minimal program to "effectuate" actual fundamental reforms in the US financial system and its relationship to the democratic control.