On 2012-02-01, at 10:17 AM, Carrol Cox wrote:
> Angelus did not give the date of the quotation from Luxemburg, but it was
> presumably before 1915. And of the writer's quoted, only a line or two in
> this passage from RL exhibit any assurance that the Non-Barbarism future is
> inevitable. It seems to me that the moment one eliminates this suggestion of
> inevitability (which, as Lowy points out is a leftover from Bourgeois
> theories of Progress built into history) -- only this gives even the weakest
> peg on which to hang babblings of "Faith." ... the (incredibly
> foolish) insistence on a scenario guaranteeing victory constitutes a final
> surrender to the inevitability of barbarism.
>
> If that grim prognosis, that total rejection of the Ideology of Progress, be
> faith, we need more of it.
You may put whatever gloss you want on Angelus' post which prompted my comment, but the quote from Luxemburg which he reproduced under the subject heading "Comforting words from Rosa L." contains more than "a line or two" about the inevitability of a socialist future, and nothing at all about the possibility of a descent into barbarism. Luxemburg and the other classical Marxists accepted the latter as a theoretical possibility, but it is evident they did so only as just that. But Rosa and the other working class leaders at least had reason to believe history was on their side, with the industrial proletariat on the rise and long before the unanticipated historic defeat of the worldwide socialist movement. To refer to her triumphalist comments then as "comforting words" for today's wholly marginalized and despairing left suggests other than a rational assessment of how the the relationship of forces and the left's prospects have changed over the past century, but pure, blind faith in the outcome. AN's approving invocation of Adorno's religious imagery further prompted my one-liner.
Here's the Luxemburg quote:
"The whole road of socialism – so far as revolutionary struggles are concerned – is paved with nothing but thunderous defeats. Yet, at the same time, history marches inexorably, step by step, toward final victory! Where would we be today without those “defeats,” from which we draw historical experience, understanding, power and idealism? Today, as we advance into the final battle of the proletarian class war, we stand on the foundation of those very defeats; and we can (sic) do without any of them, because each one contributes to our strength and understanding."
Despite your forebodings about barbarism, you seem to find comfort in trumpeting the same sentiments in more prosaic language.