How could someone like Trotsky only care about Socialism?

[Blanquist]

What drove him? Why was he so fully consumed by it?

I'm a socialist myself but nowhere near as dedicated as he was.

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

I guess he was part of a group of people who could be deemed 'professional' revolutionaries. They defined their career / purpose in life or what have you to be working towards a revolution and to be part of the vanguard.
Sadly, some of us, however willing, don't want to sacrifice too much in name of a cause (I could never be a 'Che' like figure or even a volunteer for an NGO, I'd miss my son too much)

[dodger]

I guess he was part of a group of people who could be deemed 'professional' revolutionaries. They defined their career / purpose in life or what have you to be working towards a revolution and to be part of the vanguard.
Sadly, some of us, however willing, don't want to sacrifice too much in name of a cause (I could never be a 'Che' like figure or even a volunteer for an NGO, I'd miss my son too much)


Yes Kick, vanguard? Waste of space. 2012 and still they think they can squawk instructions from atop the dung heap. Mercifully many are dead. The rest burnt out or in care. Cherish your son. Make the space around you a little better. We don't need professional revolutionaries. They don't think we can spell, we can, E-X-I-T = That's the way out.

[Book O'Dead]

Read Isaac Deutscher's The Prophet Armed:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/184654.The_Prophet_Armed

[Lev Bronsteinovich]

Trotsky was an unusual guy, born into specific circumstances that fostered his revolutionary zeal. Of course, the same could be said for so many of the Russian revolutionaries of the time -- not to mention the German revolutionaries, come to think of it. The comrade's recommendation to read Deutscher's book is a good one. Also, you might try reading Trotsky's My Life.

[Rooster]

Revolutionary times breeds revolutionaries.

[Geiseric]

It wouldn't of been fun being Trotsky nor any Bolshevik/Revolutionary Communist at a time when you had to deal with the Tsar along with all of the other reformists ready to stab you in the back.

Trotsky had a good sense of humor though, so I assume that helped him out.

[OHumanista]

The secret is having a mustache (or better a beard)and drinking russian vodka.

[kashkin]

Yeah, vodka would have helped through the bad times. And the good times. Really, any time you want.

[o well this is ok I guess]

The only real problem is probably breaking into the scene, you know?
After a while you've got a network of contacts and a daily routine.
I mean it wouldn't surprise me at all if greek protestors took to organizing shifts.

[Ostrinski]

Revolutionary times breeds revolutionaries.Pretty much this.

There were plenty of people who devoted their lives to revolution. There are plenty of people who devote their lives to many different things. I don't see devoting one's life to revolution as any different.

[Blanquist]

The only real problem is probably breaking into the scene, you know?
After a while you've got a network of contacts and a daily routine.
I mean it wouldn't surprise me at all if greek protestors took to organizing shifts.

Yeah, he probably feel into his groove and couldn't picture living any other way.

Amazing to carry one idea throughout your entire adult life. When so many people fell-out.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Revolutionary times breeds revolutionaries.This is the best answer IMO. I'm sure there are people just as dedicated now or during the 1st or 2nd international times who were just as dedicated, but were never tested like the revolutionaries in times of revolutions. How many countless revolutionary workers gave everything in a desperate fight at communard barricades or anonymously in violent labor battles or whatnot - how many "Jimmie Higgins" have there been (I don't mean myself, I mean the fictional US socialist-everyperson "Jimmie Higgins" I took the name from). How many people both known and unknown to us ended up in prisons - Tsarist, US, Fascist, Stalinist political prisoners?

Living in a time of rapid capitalist development and change, the rise of imperialist mass industrial war, two Russian Revolutions, the end of Tsarism... I'm sure all these factors were very important to making many hard-core dedicated revolutionaries in that time period.

As to the question of why others fell-off, well again historical circumstance plays a big role and so revolutionary losses or disappointments play a big part into that. And in general it's mentally hard to hold both what is and what could be in your head all the time and not go a little mental or get burnt-out sometimes - exasperated by losses or political betrayals or disillusionment. Capitalist (or any ruling class) hegemony, much of the time, relies on the idea that this order of society is natural or unalterable and that sense in non-revolutionary times (as we should all well know) can be hard and suffocating too - and it also take a toll on people, either leading them to adapt to the idea that revolution is way off so we should find some peace here and now by advocating a kinder capitalism or by retreating to individualism or life-styles or sub-cultures (all of which I like, I just don't rely on them for my political engagement).

[Lucretia]

I don't think it's entirely accurate to say that Trotsky "only" cared about socialism. He cared a great deal about other things as well. But yes, socialism was pretty damn important to him.

[TrotskistMarx]

rZOc2LQ5xVY
Neo in the movie The Matrix was like Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky, awake !!

The simple plain answer is knowledge. The more book-reading a person has, the more books and knowledge one has in their heads, the more pain he can grab from reality. You know just like the movie The Matrix. In a simple way of saying it, most people in this world live inside The Matrix. Well, The Matrix world in this world could be the life of movies, sit-coms, soap operas, parties, dancing, video games, computer games, professional sports (in which millions of people spend large amounts of their emotional energies into them) forgetting about reality like their salaries and their own selves (body, mind, health etc)

Most people who are not well-read today live in that Matrix of hobbies, inanities and absurdities. One could say that there are many right-wing intellectuals who are also well-read and are not leftists. It might be that in order to be a person who is a hardcore fan of a workers-government like Trotsky, one has to have some important traits at the same time: lots of book-reading and knowledge, compassion for the poor, anti-conformism, wanting to be economically and spiritually better, along with other important traits.

Like I said there are tons of right-wing smart book-readers in this world, that have lots of knowledge, but I think they lack the other necessary requirement to be a leftist which is love and compassion for other human beings who are poor and in pain.

So basically what maybe drove Trotsky, Gramsci, Lenin, Che Guevara, Marx, F. Engels and other great leftist thinkers and leaders has been knowledge, compassion, empathy for the whole human race, and also self-interest in wanting to be better economically and an awareness that humans only live one short life. And also a strong sense of reality. To be very close reality, and very far from the world of The Matrix of hobbies and a sort of hedonist life, which is the life of the majority of people, who don't even know what capitalism is and what socialism is. And who think that the human race has had one big economic system all the time for the last 3000 years in which a few are supposed to be rich, and the majority are supposed to be poor. That's the mainstream traditional thinking of most people.

In a way it is also a philosophical world-view. People have this ingrained thinking that Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Donald Trump and the rich of this world are indeed special, better than us, different than us and they are supposed to be millionaires and live well. While most Mcdonald workers, Wal Mart workers, pizza delivery boys are animals and are supposed to be poor. That mental-virus (meme) is ingrained in the brain of most people of this world. So we need a transvaluation of all values. To destroy those values and replace them with brand new values of socialism in which each human in this world is very important.

.



What drove him? Why was he so fully consumed by it?

I'm a socialist myself but nowhere near as dedicated as he was.

[daft punk]

I would agree with most comments above. Trotsky was a bit of a genius and not self centred in any way, who happened to be born in revolutionary times. So at the age of about 17 he declined a place at university to become a full time revolutionary and was promptly sent to Siberia. He spent a lot of time in jails where he learned more about Marxism and had endless debates with anarchists. I think he met his first wife in jail and it was her who got him into proper Marxism.

[Jimmie Higgins]

I don't think it's entirely accurate to say that Trotsky "only" cared about socialism. He cared a great deal about other things as well. But yes, socialism was pretty damn important to him.

Yeah, I find that the more interesting than his dedication - he also looked at issues of art and many other questions that aren't as obviously vital or immediately and concretely useful for a revolutionary. Maybe it's just that it humanizes revolutionary and historical figures and cuts against the "cold-calculating" revolutionary stereotype but I'm fascinated with how revolutionaries have often taken on issues outside of the immediate class struggle.

[ArrowLance]

Sometimes I wonder why I only care about the Revolution. Caring is the problem I think. I can't identify outside my politics, I can't pursue any other goal. I spend most my time on escapist nonsense because the caring kills.

What little I do get done for the Revolution can't be enough. A friend told me that it's important to remember that we are just men, that I'm not special. I'm forced to agree but it's important and complete necessary that I have to be more even though no one is. Such idealist nonsense doesn't actually drive me though. It probably only contributes to the fact that I'm near useless.