Christopher Hitchens & Robert Serivice Talk On Trotsky

[Rakhmetov]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4v3y-zFW9A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RulnVx9Pik&feature=related

[blake 3:17]

Thanks for posting this -- it is kind of interesting. I've a soft spot for Hitchens and it's clear he knows the literature and I think speaks from having had a commitment. There are a few comments Service makes that makes me want to read his book.

Fine tooth point: Trotsky did not co-author any of the Surrealist manifestoes. He did collaborate with Andre Breton later on the call for a free independent and revolutionary art as opposed to the Stalinist doctrine of Socialist Realism.

PS revleft thread here: http://www.revleft.com/vb/manifesto-independent-revolutionary-t125855/index.html?p=1638847

[blake 3:17]

Interview with the Hoover Institute? Spooky....

Thanks. I'm enjoying it.

Hitchens gets some stuff right, Service too. I think I'll read Service's bio of Trotsky now -- interesting facts and insights -- but effed up.

Hitchens gets a lot right about Trotsky the man.

The question Service poses is how different would things have been if Trotsky had won out over Stalin. He acknowledges minor differences, but those minor differences would have had a huge impact. There's also a basic ignorance around the conditions in which the Russian revolution took place.

BTW, Trotsky didn't co-author the Surrealist Manifestoes. He did collaborate with Andre Breton on the call for a free independent revolutionary art as opposed to the Stalinist doctrine of socialist realism.