The Cost of Revolution

There is a lot of talk in Marxist-Leninist circles of revolution, about how we can no longer let capitalist exploitation ravage the planet as it now presents an active existential threat to the safety of the planet and thus all the beings in it. All well and good, but... What would the cost of a worldwide revolution be?

Well, to begin with, we have to understand that, in the future, millions of people are going to be killed in wars, thousands of famines in countries ravaged by battle and thousands of millions more culturally, socially and politically repressed. This is, because, there is no proletariat revolution without an immediate reaction by the Bourgeoisie. The future will make the Soviet Union, Maoist China and Albania seems like utopias.

"We have no compassion and we ask no compassion from you. When our turn comes, we shall not make excuses for the terror. "

Democracy certainly won't lead us anywhere. One must only look at Chile: A democratically elected socialist (and rather mild socialist at that) government was overthrown by a US supported military coup that went on to murder thousands, torture thousands more with some of the most vicious methods of torture, all for the sake of keeping profits for the ruling class high. One is a fool to believe that the Bourgeoisie will simply let power be wrestled away from them. Pretending that socialism won't require widespread violence and repression is just naive. 

Indeed, even decolonization was extremely violent and in some places war did not stop until one faction was hunted down to their very last soldier and leader.

Furthermore, for a Communist revolution to be possible, as Mao pointed out, it is entirely necessary that the opposition, deemed "reactionaries" must be stamped out. After all, the modern revolutionary is no longer just dealing with the fate of his country, but with the fate of the entire world for ecological reasons. So who are the reactionaries?

Well, for starters, essentially all of Abrahamic religions would have to be demolished. Millenia of history will be destroyed because, quite simply, the Church will always oppose a Communist revolution. Religious Organizations in the past always turn to capitalism and "reactionary politics"(See: the Spanish revolution) and the lack of a strong, repressive party would allow CIA infiltrators to destroy the revolution. The Russian Orthodox Church, per example, is incredibly reactionary, and canonizes the Tsar, which would not be allowed by the Party. Organized Religion favors, above all else, the status quo.

So, if there was to be a revolution, to be blunt, entire cultures made up of billions of people would either need to die or be suppressed into non-existence, which would undeniably lead to millions  of innocents being caught in the crossfire. In all Revolutions, the innocent have vanished. Per example,, during the Russian Civil War, the Green armies were mostly just peasants who wanted to stay out of the war, caught in the crossfire. Many German civilians in WW2 were reduced to skeletal ashes, pounded into dust by Allied bombs in what was a necessary sacrifice to hit valid military targets, such as the bombing of Dresden. This is a sad fact for the revolutionary because Imperialist powers would never let such a thing happen peacefully, the coups in South America on behalf of the US and the repression of the Chinese New Left on the behalf of the Chinese Communist Party being good examples of this. The sad fact for the religious is that the Church and religious individuals have always been associated to Counterrevolution, and will thus be purged, should a revolution happen. 

And that is just for religious sub-cultures, I need to remind you! We have not even began to touch all other subcultures that would fight against the revolution and/or be deemed "reactionary". Islamic treatment of women, the Indian caste system, female genital mutilation, white picket fence bourgeois America worshipers, racism in the Deep South, Hikikomori waifu worship culture (both in Japan and its spread to the West), K-Pop idol worship (the worst the culture industry has to offer) are just some, some elements of culture which would have to be changed under Socialism, and during the hypothetical revolution, anyone who fights to preserve these elements of culture would be killed.

To speak nothing of all the leftists who will be killed for their opposition to the Party! As we can see historically, anarchists have always been opposed and destroyed by Marxist-Leninists countries. Anarchists may be successful in creating anarcho-communist societies without reaching even nearly the repression that ML countries have, as they have in the past (Revolutionary Catalonia, Shimmin Prefecture, Ukranian Free Territory, etc) but they were ultimately completely crushed by a mix of Stalinists and Fascists fighting them. Should a revolution erupt from the barrel of gunpowder that is our modern world, I have no doubt that several anarchist revolutions will happen, and I also have no doubt that they will be crushed after a few years. 

"The revolutionary is a doomed man. He has no personal interests, no business affairs, no emotions, no attachments, no property, and no name. Everything in him is wholly absorbed in the single thought and the single passion for revolution."

"But that all implies" replies to me a man "that a revolution will happen. What happens if neoliberal capitalism is truly the end of history, as Fukuyama states? Or if revolutions do happen, but fail?"

To that, I am afraid that not much will change. The gears of fascism are already moving with what is essentially concentration camps working on the borders of the US, a supporter of the Brazilian Dictatorship winning the elections, several white nationalists terrorist attacks, and so on. If the Communists don't have a revolution, then as resources run low, as the environment decays resulting in masses of refugees seeking asylum, then either Fascism or Neo-Feudalism will rise. There is no escape from the coming of brutal dictatorships in the future. 

I do not say all this as anti-communist, or as a communist for that matter. But I would like to know to all those who are willing to partake in the revolution in the future: How far would you be willing to go? The coming revolution, if it is to succeed at all, needs revolutionaries to embody Nechayev's "doomed man" to a chilling degree. And the Doomed Man "knows that in the very depths of his being, not only in words but also in deeds, he has broken all the bonds which tie him to the social order and the civilized world with all its laws, moralities, and customs, and with all its generally accepted conventions. He is their implacable enemy, and if he continues to live with them it is only in order to destroy them more speedily." and he "hates the existing social morality in all its manifestations. For him, morality is everything which contributes to the triumph of the revolution. Immoral and criminal is everything that stands in its way."

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever."

The revolutionary is a dedicated man, merciless toward the State and toward the educated classes; and he can expect no mercy from them. Between him and them there exists, declared or concealed, a relentless and irreconcilable war to the death. He must accustom himself to torture.