Understanding the Left Ideology Root and Branch

 

Understanding the Left Ideology Root and Branch

 

From Anarchy to Global Hegemony-

The Bundschu Movement in Germany between 1493 and 1517 was the first known uprising of the have-nots for their rights and demands. By getting support from the reformist protestant movement that began in 1517, this unrest got a structured form and by 1524-25 it evolved into a more organised movement known as German Peasant War. The 12 articles of the peasants demands are considered as the First Draft of Human Rights and Civil Liberties in Europe. The gathering and process of drafting them are known as the First Constituent Assembly. Martin Luther who initiated the protestant movement declared his support to these demands. Martin Luther was trying to get the maximum demands of the peasants met, through a process of discussions and negotiations based on mutual understanding. But Thomas Muntzer, a German preacher and theologian, with support from anabaptists, gave the movement a violent turn.

Discussions, negotiations are a slow process and strong arm tactics appear more attractive as they create an illusion of instant results. It is leadership’s duty to point out the dangers lurking in this path. But if leadership themself instigate violence, the movement is derailed and finally ends in disaster. The German Peasant War met with the same fate. The moment of making a choice between the two options was really the turning point in the history of the movements of the oppressed. All the movements after this, went the way of violence, and every single time the result was failure.

 

 

French Revolution-

The French revolution, the second anti establishment uprising after the German Peasant War, had a huge impact on world history. The French economy was in crisis due to France’s involvement in the American war of Independence that began in 1775. The luxurious lifestyle and exorbitant expenses of King Louis XVI didn’t help either. Inflation was at its peak and the prices of bread had sky-rocketed. In such an inflammable situation, when the King introduced additional taxation to fill the empty coffers, it lead to riots and plunder. In 1786, Charles Calonne, an official in the King’s administration, presented a proposal of economic reforms under which, even the aristocracy was not exempted from the taxes. To garner support for these reforms and to quell the unrest among the aristocracy, King Louis XVI called for the Estate General, a meeting of the clergy, the Aristocracy and the Third Estate( The Commoners), which had not taken place since 1614. Though the Third Estate comprises 90% of the population but Clergy and Aristocracy can veto on the decisions of the Third Estate. In the meeting held on 5 May1789, the Third Estate moved to cancel this veto power. Though all the groups supported the Economic and Constitutional reforms, Aristocracy were unwilling to give up their special rights. The Third Estate, frustrated at this lack of progress, called for a meeting on 17 June and decided to form a National Assembly. Within 3 days of this decision, they came together on an indoor tennis court and took an oath not to return to their respective towns till the constitutional reforms are implemented. This is known as the ‘Tennis Court Oath’. Within a week 47 progressive thinking members of clergy and aristocracy joined them. On 27 June King Louis declared the formation of a National Assembly with the participation of all three groups. Till this point, the reforms were progressing in a constitutional manner through process of discussions and negotiations. But the romance of a bloody revolution is so appealing and the urge for revenge so intense, that people lose their head in no time.

Even as the meetings of The National Constitutional Assembly were on at Versailles, the Jacobins, an extremist leftist group who were uncomfortable with the constitutional reform process, started spreading rumours in Paris, about the impending military coup. Panic stricken at this prospect, Parisians stormed the Bastille fort on 14 July and took charge of arms and ammunitions. This day is considered to be the beginning of the French Revolution. The ensuing frenzy spread throughout the country. The National Constituent Assembly could see only one way to tackle the fury. On 4 August 1789, it declared the abolition of the feudal regime and on 26 August, it introduced the ‘Declaration of The Rights of Man and The Citizen’ that was based on the ideas of the well known philosopher Rousseau. This is known as the ‘Death Certificate of the Old Order’. Marques de Sade, a French author had also participated in the storming of Bastille. Through his books loke, Misfortune of Virtue, Philosphy of the Bedroom and 120 days of Sodom, he had propagated violence and the perversion in sexual relations. He is known as the’Father of Sadism’.

King louis tried to runaway in June 1791. Finally the first written constitution was accepted on 3 September 1791. This proposed a constitutional monarchy like that of England. This was rejected by extreme leftists, the Jacobins. Now the movement took an extremist and violent turn. Jacobins attacked the Royal Palace on 10 August 1792 and arrested Louis XVI. The National Assembly was dissolved and a new National Convention was created, monarchy was abolished and the French Republic was established. King was executed on 2 January 1793 and in June 1793, the Jacobins removed the moderate and centrist Girondin group from the National Convention. Now the revolution totally falls in the hands of extremists Jacobins, who unleashed a bloody period known as ‘Reign of Terror’. This orgy was so shocking and unbearable that ordinary citizens began raising their voice in condemnation of these atrocities. This is known as Thermodorian Reaction. On 22 August 1793, the National Convention accepted the new constitution of France despite Jacobin’s opposition. They tried to disrupt but was asked to shut up by young Army General Napoleon Bonaparte.

When complete collapse looked imminent because of unrest and financial collapse, Napoleon established the ‘French Consulate’ with himself in it as a member and finally in 1804, he dissolved this arrangement and declared himself the emperor.

 

Thus we can say that not a single leftist movement has ever succeeded in creating the New Man and a New Society. If every single time, after unleashing an orgy of violence and terror, the left hasn’t succeeded even partially in creating a new society that is free from exploitation and is based on equality and social justice, there must be something fundamentally wrong with the ideology itself.

Jean Jacques Rousseau who provided the philosophical foundation for the French Revolution wanted to replace Christianity with a new political religion that idealised or glorified people. Its high priests were the leaders of the revolution who were going to hold the political and economic power too. In this new religion, you were not expected to have any right as an individual, as you were expected to surrender all your dreams, desires and aspirations at the altar of the collective. Rouessau’s theory of General Will says, Those who live as per the dictates of the general will are free and virtuous, while those who defy it are criminal, fools or heretics. These enemies of the common good must be FORCED to obey the General Will. The right to decide that what constitutes the General Will rests only with the leaders of the revolution. The only freedom allowed was to act according to the whims of one person or at best, a coterie around that person.  Rousseau in his book ‘The Social Construct’ proposed a society in which politics and religion are perfectly combined. A political ideology became a religion, where loyalty to the state and loyalty to the divine were seen as the same thing. Not reason but the blind faith, was the foundation of this new religion. Divinity to people’s will may sound very appealing, but one needs to remember that Robespierre and later Mussolini, Hitler, Lenin, Stalin etc. had the right to decide what People’s Will are. For a revolution to be successful they didn’t want people to be non- believers but to recognise the New God(General Will) who spoke through them. Religion and Family are the institutions that provide stability and continuity in the society. Their destruction is therefore a priority for the Left, who want to demolish the existing social order and create a New Man and a New Society. Besides extreme concentration of power, Communism, fascism and Nazism inherited yet another legacy from the French Revolution- Violence and Terror. Robespierre declared on his speech of 5 February 1794,” Terror is nothing other than justice. Terror is essential for prompt, severe and inflexible justice”.

 

….And Anarchy Became Official-

Ideas and forces unleashed by the French revolution led to the mainstreaming of Anarchy in France. Pierre Joseph Proudhon was the first philosopher to label himself as an anarchist. An early anarchist, communist Joseph Dejaque, declared, “it is not the product of his or her labour that the worker has a right to, but to the satisfaction of his or her deeds, whatever may be their nature”. Thus France became the birthplace of illegalism, a controversial anarchist ideology that openly embraced criminality.

Paris Commune-

In 1870, Napoleon’s nephew Louis Napoleon who was the emperor of France, had entered into a pointless war with Bismark’s Prussia, which gives a shot to Bismark’s effort of unifying Germany. The war ended in a crushing defeat to France, Paris was besieged and the emperor was captured. In February, 1871 legislative elections were held and new assembly favoured  a mix of monarchy and democracy. Parisians who are more inclined to left began organising their own alternative regime in Paris. A leftist militia , known as ‘The National Guards’ had been formed in Paris during the city’s siege by Prussian army. This left army started skirmishes with the Royal Army resulting in the death of 2 army Generals on 18 March,1871. Royal Government fled to Versailles and Paris. On 26 March, 1871 ‘Paris Commune’ a left wing communard government seized power in Paris. For the next 2 months, National Guards slaughtered the clergy and a few rich people who remained in the city. They committed acts of looting reprisal against political enemies. Paris experienced chaos and class vengeance. This was the first time, the internationalism of the left and their ambitions of global hegemony came to the fore. Nationalism was derided as jingoistic symbolism and Eugene Poitier’s ‘La Internatioanale’ became an inspirational song for the global left. Under the influence of this thought, Vendrome Column, a monument sculpted of melted Austrian and Russian canons with a statue of Napoleon Bonaparte on top, was seen as a nationalistic affront to their internationalism, and was toppled by the communards on 16 May, 1871. This proved to be their blunder, resulting in upsurge of a feeling in the French Army that communards have destroyed the symbol of victories of our fore fathers when the entire Europe have come together against our nation. Having thus regained their spirit, the army that was camping at Versailles, march towards Paris.

Thus , in order to fulfil their ambitions of global control, many ideologies have advocated the erasing of national borders and uniting the whole world. Yet, this ideological façade has barely been able to conceal their supremacist expansionism. The patriotic urge to protect one’s own country and culture has always trumped these attempts at globalisation.

 As the French Army reached at the outskirts of the Paris, Communards torched the entire city hoping to stop the Army’s advance. The violent acts of Communards convinced the common people that they had nothing to offer but anarchy and violence only. As the locals were turned against the left, French Army ended the Paris Commune with ease. It seems that all leftist revolutionary movements ultimately end in disappointing failures.

Facts about the Paris Commune- Firstly, it was not a spontaneous mass movement, but a violent mutiny by a small and committed leftist group. Paris Commune was imposed by the left through violence and terror only. Secondly, for all the talks of equality and justice, what united the Communards wasn’t the economic theory or socialism, but their intense desire to uproot two ideas that bind society and country together- Religious Faith and Patriotism. Thirdly, their methodology was based on anarchy and violence.

 

A study of the German Peasants War, French Revolution and The Paris Commune , often referred as inspirations behind leftist movements, reveal their defining characteristics-

1)    Aim of global control through destruction of institutions like religion and family.

2)    Methodology of anarchy and violence.

3)    Control vested with a small clique. Only lip service to the masses.

4)    No place for individual liberty.

5)    Priority for destruction of established value system, rather than economic and social equality.

6)    Even as a genuine movement by common people for their justified demands, is on the verge of getting some success, a small but organised and committed group jumps in and gives the movement an anarchist and violent turn, and he movement invariably ends in complete failure.

 

Karl Marx and the Left Psyche-

To understand the psyche of left, it is important to understand the mindset of its founder, Karl Marx. Renowned scholar W Cleon Skousen says,” Karl Marx projected into communism the very essence of its own nature. His resentment of political authority expressed itself in a ringing cry for universal revolution. His refusal or inability to compete in a capitalist economy, wrung from him a vitriolic denunciation of that economy and a prophecy that its destruction was inexorably decreed. His dep sense of insecurity pushed him to create out of his imagination a device for interpretating history, which made progress in escapable and a communist millennium unavoidable. His personal attitude towards religion, morals and competition in everyday existence had him long for an age when Men would have no religion, morals or competition in everyday existence. He wanted to live in classless, stateless, non-competitive society, in which there would be such lavish production of everything that men, by simply producing according to their apparent ability would automatically receive superabundance of all material needs.”

 

Marx was born on 5 May, 1818 in a Jewish family at Trier in Germany, his name at birth being, Moses Mordecai Levy. His ancestors on both sides were religious scholars and distinguished rabbis. I 1824 his father withdrew from Judaism and joined the Protestant faith. Marx’s later rejection of religion is often attributed to the trauma and confusion caused by this sudden change of faith at the age of six. As a school student, he was bright but unable to keep friends. Marx parent’s often complaint about his ego, lack of concern for the family, constant demand for money and failing to answer their letters. In 1835, Marx entered the University of Bonn to pursue his law degree. In the first year itself, he almost get himself expelled for drunkenness and rioting. His academic progress was unsatisfactory and hence he got himself shifted to University of Berlin. Their he switched to Philosophy after his father’s death. At Berlin he joined a leftist group of Hegelians, who were the followers of German philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Hegel. All the energy of this group is focused on liquidating Christianity. Marx’s initial intellectual journey was thus overwhelmingly anti religion than pro-equality. In 1843, he married Jenny von Westphalen. At the time oof his wedding he was unemployed, which was to be his permanent state of entire married life. Marx never did anything to discharge his duties towards the family. Yet, Jenny always remain devoted to him. After the marriage, they went to Paris, where Marx started a revolutionary publication ‘The Franco German Yearbook’ that collapsed after its first publication. This was to be pattern of his life. He never did anything to earn an honest livelihood. He was always under debt. All his life he kept borrowing money from his friend, Friedrich Angels, son of a wealthy textile manufacturer. Like Marx Angel always has a fight with his father and he too had joined the radical left wing, Hegelian group. Neither these fights with his father stopped him from taking money from his father nor did Marx have any qualms in spending his entire life on borrowed money from his friend’s bourgeois father. It seems, the leftist’s firm belief that as revolutionaries, it is their self-ordained right to be taken care by others, is rooted in the life of their highest priest.

Marx used to drink heavily. It appears that his life was filled with negative energy due to bitter happenings in his life, repeated failures and a heart filled with extreme hatred. After Marx was expelled from France due to his radical thoughts, he shifted to Brussels in Belgium. Her, Marx and Engels wrote The Holy Family, a book designed to turn those socialists who believed in peaceful reforms towards violent revolution. In November 1847, Federation of the Just ( Later known as Communist League) invited Marx and Engels to their congress to be held in London. They not only attended it but also managed to control it. They were then commissioned to write a Manifesto to the World. After returning to Brussels they created a document, which is known as The Communist Manifesto, that announced to the world , what International Communism stood for-

1.    Overthrow of capitalism.

2.    Abolition of private property.

3.    Elimination of the family as a social unit.

4.    Abolition of all classes.

5.    Overthrow of all governments.

6.    Establishment of a communist order with community ownership of property in a classless, stateless society.

The Revolution of 1948 –

Economic hardship in France, led to extreme resentment against King Louis Phillipe. In a violent uprising, the King was driven out of the country and a provisional government was formed, which included the members of the Communist League. They immediately invited Marx to Paris. He arrived in Paris with excitement, where the International Headquarters of the Communist League were established under his chairmanship. This convinced the radical elements that the time to spread destruction and to create a communist utopia all over the world had arrived. As per the plan, legions of revolutionaries were sent Germany, Italy and Austria. This initial euphoria was short lived, as differences soon started emerging among the leaders of the revolution. The principal reason behind this was Marx’s giant ego. Right from the beginning, this uprising in Germany had little support. By 1849, it had completely collapsed. Marx was asked to leave the country within 24 hours. He tried going back to Paris, but by this time the revolution there had failed too, and Napoleon III had become the emperor.

The left has always claimed that due to industrialisation the exploitation of workers and the inhuman treatment meted out to them makes violence inevitable. So, left never participated in the process of easing things for the workers, as they had no interest in bringing about improvement in worker’s lives. Their aim was gaining global control, by spreading anarchy and violence. Their methodology had no place for discussion and exchange of ideas. Marx was invited to be a part of workers international organisation established in London, which soon came to known as the “First International”. The founders of this association wanted to bring changes by peaceful, constitutional means. However, by careful, behind the scene manoeuvring, Marx was able to convince the association to accept his radical programmes. It is clear that for Marx, values like Duty, Right, Truth, Morality, Justice etc. were potentially harmful and were to be paid a mere lip service as a compromise. It is also clear that compromise was temporary and he wanted to take the association down the path of anarchy and violence. This agenda was laid bare in a short time. He started working on 2 fronts. First, at the core of the association, he wanted to create a group of committed and hardened revolutionaries who would work on inflaming workers in all countries and preparing them for a bloody revolution. The second was to purge the party of those leaders who could pose a challenge to his leadership. Marx and Engels mercilessly destroyed their colleagues who they wanted to get rid of, by creating a whole mechanism of false allegations, character assassination and accusation of being traitors. This became the signature style of left in future. The purge of all leaders who [posed a real or imaginary threat to Marx’s leadership, created a sense of suspicion and distrust. This led to factionalism and the association soon crumbled. Thus Marx’s prediction that the bloody revolution will start in industrialised nations remained only a pipe dream. Learning from this, the Marxists later perfected the technique of a small but committed group holding the entire working class to ransom and bringing about a violent revolution in their name.

Marx had always harboured two major ambitions –

One was to bring about a global revolution through an International organisation of workers. The other was to write a book that would provide an intellectual foundation for the revolution by encompassing his revolution theories on the new history, economics and sociology. After the virtual death of the First International, Marx decided to focus his energies on writing the book. His seminal work, The Capital, was published in March 1867. However its sales doesn’t match his expectations. Marx later added two more volumes to this book. Many doubts were raised about the integrity of his writings. Carl Popper, a renowned thinker, describes him as a False Prophet and charges him with intellectual dishonesty. Two Cambridge University scholars studying his writings n 1880, found him to be ‘chronically dishonest’ about the sources of his information and charged him of ‘distorting of data’. In the end, even his ego deserted Marx. Labour leaders ignored him. The only person besides Engels who had stood with him through all his ups and downs, his wife Jenny, died of cancer. Three months later, on 14 March, 1883, at 2.45 in the afternoon, Marx died while sitting in his chair…desolate, forlorn, alone. His life was an unfortunate saga of burning ambition, constant frustration and continuous failure.

Bakunin, who calls Marx the supreme economic and socialist genius of our days describes him as a person, in these words,” Marx was egoistical to the pitch of insanity….He loved his own person much more than others and no friendship could hold water against the slightest wound to his vanity….Marx would never forgive a slight to his person…You must worship him, make an idol of him, if he has to love you in return; you must at least fear him, if he has to tolerate you….He likes himself to be surrounded with pygmies, with lackeys and flatterers…..everyone is on his guard, is afraid of being sacrificed, of being annihilated….Marx is the chief distributors of honours but is also invariably perfidious and malicious….He incites persecution of those whom he suspects….As soon as he ordered a persecution there is no limit to the baseness and infamy of the method.” This description may fit any communist dictator like Lenin, Stalin. Mao, Pol Pot or North Korea’s Kim. This means that people with a particular mindset are attracted to communism. However, the difference is, Marx converted this mindset into a philosophy, which he called’ the philosophy of emancipation of the oppressed”. Lenin’s word are the testimony to the fact that hate is at the core of leftist ideology,

 “We must Hate. Hatred is the base of communism. Children must be taught to hate their parents if they are not communists.” Every ideology that harbours the ambition of global domination and control has to engineer an ‘Us’ vs. ‘Them’ division. Communists have great attraction for the concept of ‘Satan’. Bakunin, a close associate of Marx; and Saul Alinsky, a 20^th century American communist, both consider Lucifer( Satan’s name) to be a rebel, a free thinker and an emancipator of the world. Bakunin says, “ In the revolution we will have to awaken the devil in the people, to stir up the basest passions. Our mission is to destroy not edify. The passion of destruction is a creative passion”. Destruction was clearly their aim. According to the Bible, it was Lucifer’s aim too. It is noteworthy, how people close to Marx and who influenced him, were attracted to Satan.  Communists can’t be called atheists. They should  be called anti- religion and anti- god. At the fundamental level, communism is not about conflict between have’s and have not’s, but between positive and negative mindsets.

Marx had said about himself that he is the ‘most outstanding hater of the so called positive’.

Stalin says,” The greatest joy is to cultivate a person’s friendship until he lays his head confidently on your bosom, then to implant a dagger in his back- pleasure not to be surpassed”.

Mao Tse Tung once wrote,” From the age of eight, I hated Confucious. In our village, there was a Confucianist temple. With all my heart, I wished only one thing: to destroy it to its very foundations”

He Guevara says,” Hate is an element of fight- pitiless hate against the foe, hate that lifts the revolutionist above the natural limitation of man and makes him an efficient, destructive, cool, calculating and cold killing machine”.

Communism is clearly an ideology that kills all human emotions and transforms people into computers or cold killing machines, having cool heads and heart filled with hatred.