History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.

[Questionable]

What exactly does this quote mean? I read it almost a year ago and I could never figure out what Marx is referring to. Is this something that actually happens according to dialectical development, or is Marx just saying something clever about Napoleon and France?

[ed miliband]

slavoj zizek is definitive proof of this dictum.

[The Douche]

slavoj zizek is definitive proof of this dictum.

Are you saying zizek is marx returned as farce? Who was tragic marx?

[ed miliband]

lacan was tragic, zizek is a farce.

actually yeah, i don't know. it doesn't work.

[ComradeOm]

What exactly does this quote mean? I read it almost a year ago and I could never figure out what Marx is referring to. Is this something that actually happens according to dialectical development, or is Marx just saying something clever about Napoleon and France?It's mostly the latter. Marx was just being witty in comparing the comic-opera, albeit somewhat under-rated, Napoleon III in the context of his uncle, one of the most influential figures in European history

His point was that Napoleon III was making use of the illustrious heritage of his uncle, appropriating the airs and titles of the elder Bonaparte, in the same way that all movements reach into the past for inspiration and slogans. The result was a caricature of the old Napoleon in the form of the new. That Napoleon III took power in a manner remarkably similar to the original (ie a coup against the Republic) doesn't do the comparison any harm

[Hit The North]

It's not some sombre law of dialectics, it's Marx saying something clever and contemptuous about the pretensions of Louis Bonarparte's regime.

EDIT: Yeah, what ComradeOm writes above.

[theblackmask]

It's not some sombre law of dialectics, it's Marx saying something clever and contemptuous about the pretensions of Louis Bonarparte's regime.

EDIT: Yeah, what ComradeOm writes above.

Nope, Marx said it so it must be law.

[Prometeo liberado]

What Marx may have also been alluding to as well is man's propensity to forgive and forget. Thus reaping the whirlwind of his own slavery over and over. You might say that people in the U.S. do this every four years. IMO.

[cantwealljustgetalong]

I've always interpreted it as: people attempting to emulate history's successes tend to only replicate its failures. this is the result of acting upon a superficial theoretical understanding of history.

for instance, look at the Revolutionary Communist Party. they have no power and will never achieve any of their stated goals, yet they've taken all the worst parts of Maoism to absurd extremes (except the ones that required power to pull off).

[l'Enfermé]

It's from the opening paragraph of The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonoparte (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/ch01.htm).


Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. Caussidière for Danton, Louis Blanc for Robespierre, the Montagne of 1848 to 1851 for the Montagne of 1793 to 1795, the nephew for the uncle. And the same caricature occurs in the circumstances of the second edition of the Eighteenth Brumaire.

It's just a witticism. He's just mocking Monsieur Bonaparte, whom he calls a grotesque mediocrity a few lines before, in the Preface.