Anti-Prophet
18th July 2004, 05:47
Whenever such a transition from leading an opposition to participating in government, from heroic fight to responsible teaching and practice, takes place within a short period of time, there is a danger that poineers will not be flexible enough for the required emotional reorientation; that they may remain fixated to an attitude wich has become outmoded. The result is a tendency to misinterpret the attitued of others, a Don Quiote fight against windmiles. Every question is misunderstood as a sign of hostility based on resistance. Valid criticism provokes, instead of reconsideration and re-examination, violent counterattack. Smug complacencey can only partly cover up inner insecurity wich accompanies improvement of knowledge and practice, the tendency to rest on the laurels of the past appears in the form of dogmatism. Repetition of common historical pattern of a once progressive movement changing into stagnant doctrinairism is imminent.
The question pertaining to Marxism as a theory and practice must be met. They can be satisfactorily answerd only by a self-critical re-evaluation of all that we can offer; else we must evade the answer by ignoring the question. This re-evalutation necessarily leads to changes and requires improvements in theory and practice. The complacent reiteration of earlier achievements and routine continuation of former practices result in serility.
With the general acceptance of fundamental discoveries of Marxism, we have left behind the heroic era of Marxism and have entered a new era of responsibility. Our principal responsibility is to evaluate what we know and what we can offer in good conscience to advance both our theoretical and practical knowledge, to avoid dogmatic consolidation by emphasizing that Marxism is a developing ideology and not a finished product. In this era in which masses want to learn all they can about Marxism, our responsibility is to open up our gates and to give all we can. Instead of working in splendid isolation, we must find a way and means to reunite with mainstream politics which we had to leave for compelling historical reasons.
The question pertaining to Marxism as a theory and practice must be met. They can be satisfactorily answerd only by a self-critical re-evaluation of all that we can offer; else we must evade the answer by ignoring the question. This re-evalutation necessarily leads to changes and requires improvements in theory and practice. The complacent reiteration of earlier achievements and routine continuation of former practices result in serility.
With the general acceptance of fundamental discoveries of Marxism, we have left behind the heroic era of Marxism and have entered a new era of responsibility. Our principal responsibility is to evaluate what we know and what we can offer in good conscience to advance both our theoretical and practical knowledge, to avoid dogmatic consolidation by emphasizing that Marxism is a developing ideology and not a finished product. In this era in which masses want to learn all they can about Marxism, our responsibility is to open up our gates and to give all we can. Instead of working in splendid isolation, we must find a way and means to reunite with mainstream politics which we had to leave for compelling historical reasons.