Do we need a revolution?

The elements of confusion and dissolution which are making themselves felt in British life, in the concept of life itself and the will to national self-preservation, cannot be eradicated by a mere change of government. More than enough of those changes have already taken place without bringing about any essential betterment of the distress that exists in Britain. As time has gone on the thought and practical life of our people have been led astray into ways that are unnatural to them and injurious. One of the causes which brought about this condition of affairs must be attributed to the fact that the structure of our State and our methods of government were foreign to our own national character, our historical development and our national needs.

The parliamentary-democratic system is inseparable from the other symptoms of the time. A critical situation cannot be remedied by collaborating with the causes of it but by a radical extermination of these causes. Hence under such conditions the political struggle must necessarily take the form of a revolution.

It is out of the question to think that such a revolutionary reconstruction could be carried out by those who are the custodians and the more or less responsible representatives of the old regime. Nor would it be possible to bring this about by collaborating with these institutions, but only by establishing a new movement which will fight against them for the purpose of carrying through a radical reformation in political, cultural and economic life.

When the average political party wins a parliamentary victory no essential change takes place in the historical course which the people are following or in the outer aspect of public life; whereas a genuine revolution that arises from a profound ideological insight will always lead to a transformation which is strikingly impressive and is manifest to the outside world.

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3 comments:

Jim Baxter said...

Ha. As a bit of an amateur historian, especially of the 20th century (I used to live there you know) that began to look very familiar very quickly. I began to think, how can I put this... 'that could be straight out of a book written in the 1920s'. Then I followed the link. I was close.

Then, having recovered from my momentary sense of cleverness (I slways recover very quickly from those, especially in these times) I thought, how unfortunate.

Wrinkled Weasel said...

Well done Jim!

Jim Baxter said...

WW,

(Unsere) Geduld ist (fast) am ende (nicht wahr?)