Lessons From History

[Poppytry]

What are some general and evident lessons we can take from history?

[Random Precision]

Never get involved in a land war in Asia. Also, never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line.

[ComradeOm]

Its also been conclusively proven that invading Russia (regardless of the time of year) is almost always a Very Bad Idea

[Partizani]

The only lesson from history is that people don't learn from history.

[Andy Bowden]

Occupying Afghanistan is also a schoolboy error.

[Pierson's]

all empires, no matter how big, and how long they have lasted, always collapse and become history.

also, change is constant.


Never get involved in a land war in Asia.
unless, of course, you are china, in which case there is a good chance you will win. that quote's only really relevant for non-asian powers.

[New Tet]

That it repeats itself, quotes Marx, "once as a tragedy, then as a farce", or sumpin' like that.

[Holden Caulfield]

that the bourgeois will lie about it all: "slavery wasn't our fault, war wasn't our fault, genocide wasn't our fault, poverty wasn't our fault, empires and imperialism wasn't our fault, economic failings aren't our fault" etc etc etc

[La Comédie Noire]

Electoral politics and the parliamentary road is not revolutionary. That was confirmed in every European nation that had "socialist" deputies in World War I.

We got kind of lucky on that one, empirical evidence doesn't always come in an over whelming flood like that. But, the final fuck you didn't come in 1914, oh no, it came in 1919 when a social democratic president sent proto fascist militias to murder revolting workers in Germany!

[btpound]

We learned from the Paris commune that the working class are universally bound together by common interests. If they are to make a change in the world based on those interests, they need to have a program for the revolutionary seizure of power. We learned from China that the working class must lead the revolution or you get a deformed workers state. And we learned from George Bush that to be president you need only a middle school education.

[mikelepore]

"Revolutions triumphed, whenever they did triumph, by asserting themselves and marching straight upon their goal. You will find the reformer ever flying off at a tangent, while the revolutionist sticks to the point."

"The organization of the working class must be both economic and political. The capitalist is organized upon both lines. You must attack him on both."

-- Daniel De Leon

[Red_Xan]

We can learn from China and Russia that revolution is possible, but we must also learn that revolution only works so long as a system is put in place to keep it up.

No matter that America is Capitalist, its solidly formed Constitution shows that revolution is able to be sustained, and that it can hold out.

[Red_Xan]

I meant the revolution could hold out, of course.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Its also been conclusively proven that invading Russia (regardless of the time of year) is almost always a Very Bad Idea

This made me chuckle :)

OT: In general, 'power corrupts...'.

To be more specific, my personal belief is that Vanguardism has been proven to sink a revolution, due to the relevance of the maxim above. I could not be more steadfast in this belief.

[The Count]

An enemy of an enemy is not a friend.

[Ol' Dirty]

History does not repeat itself, but it sure as hell rhymes.

[RED DAVE]

The lessons of history and life according to the great American radical writer, Nelson Algren:


• Never eat at a place called Mom's.

• Never play cards with a man named Doc.

• And never lie down with a woman who's got more troubles than you.


However, since Algren was well-known as a master of crypto-marxism, the true dialectical meaning of the above is:


• Never confuse substructure and superstructure.

• Never confront the ruling class as an individual.

• And never join a left-wing political organization that only has branches in New York, Chicago and the Bay Area.


RED DAVE

[Comrade Anarchist]

That a revolution must overthrow the state, not just the capitalists or else we face a state with more power and authority then the capitalists ever had over our lives. And that a collective can be oppressive without the individual and that sacrificing the individual is the greatest harm to the revolution and the commune.

[lombas]

That a Roman emperor using aristocratic tactics against the aristocracy cannot benefit the people on the long term and will be despised for doing so by later generations ad infinitum.

Oh, and you'll be murdered in any case.

[Random Precision]

Also, Oldthinkers unbellyfeel Ingsoc.

[Comrade Wolfie's Very Nearly Banned Adventures]

When In doubt, take LSD.

[Communist Theory]

Fascism is doubleplusungood.