All across the 20th century, as the result of deliberately inculcated international ignorance, of mind and thought control and of lethal ideology, about capitalism, socialism and Marxism, we, the mass population of the globe, know very little. To bury capitalism, at first, its internal dialectics, its life wires, its social contradictions and arsenals of arms of mass destruction, have to be studied, be known, penetrated and annihilated. If not, we will be burying the biblical thief in the night, the prince of darkness, Dracula, but also his local vampires.
Nonetheless, for us in Venezuela the theoretical question remains: will we be able to poison the coming black mamba with its own venom? Until now we fought a valiant battle, but we did not succeed as yet, the war is still on.
Will and can the Bolivarian Revolution eventually succeed, to globalize itself, in solidarity with other revolutions?
To answer this question:
Knoweth thyself! Knoweth thy revolution!
We should not forget that the capitalist mode of production became a dominant world order precisely because of its social revolution. Now it uses the very revolution to perpetuate imperialism and corporatism. As self defense, capitalism is an expert in producing ideology and practice. Hence, could we rally supersede capitalism with scientific socialist praxis and philosophic emancipatory theory?
Across the last two centuries tonnes of volumes have been written about the concept, form and content of revolution, here we can only highlight some aspects that pertain to our construction of socialism on a global scale. This is just an introductory approximation, more deliberations will follow.
In medias res, how is it possible that after a decade of fervent revolution in Venezuela and elsewhere, after April and December 2002, that so many students, youths and comrades still do not have the most rudimentary scientific knowledge about revolution, about capitalism, about socialism? All over Venezuela we have launched revolutionary projects and missions, and yet capitalism is flourishing all over.
What is happening?
Sincerely, comrades, what is going wrong?
What have we learned at school, at the university, about revolution? Let us look at our everyday concepts, at the "re-" generation of the current 'war of ideas', of 'full spectrum dominance': at words like religion, reform, renaissance, rearm, reaction, repeat, return, revolve, revolution. In re, all have something in common: the repetition, the regression, the repression, the return to the status quo ante rem, to the established world order. Except surplus value, they negate anything that is really excellent, extra, any exodus, exit or "ex-volution" out of this imperialist vale of tears.
As President Chavez urgently demands, of course, we must bury capitalism but not our revolutionary hatchet, our militant, scientific praxis and optimistic, philosophic theory. Also in this global depression, we should not forget the existence of a terrorist "Empire", and blindfolded begin to smoke our peace pipes with metropolitan leaders. Tactics, strategy and diplomacy is one thing, revolution is another matter. Myopic political amnesia should not occur here in Venezuela in 2009, not in Afghanistan, not in Iraq. The "opposition" and the CIA have refined their infiltration and tactics, they already occupy the "Alcaldia Mayor" (Mayor's office) of Caracas. Here in Venezuela they are applying the modern rainbow colored conception of modern "revolution". The problem is that nowadays everybody is a revolutionary, a liberator.
Under such circumstances today,Marx would say: I am NOT a revolutionary!
Nearly every week my under-graduate and post-graduate students at the University of The Andes want to know the following:
Because so many of our comrades were never taught about the 'revolution' let us briefly get down to the ABC of revolution. In its manifold current meanings lies the core of revolutionary ideology, of mind and thought control. In the international mass media the term, especially associated with Venezuela, has acquired a dangerous, watery, a wishy-washy meaning.
Transhistorically, what do 'volver' and 'revolver' signify?
Inter alia, "volver" in Spanish means to "turn" or to "roll"; among other connotations the Latin or English prefix "re-" means to "return", to "roll back", e.g., to return loans, to "revolve" credit. Revolution was always a central economic and political term in business, in the European historic process of the accumulation of capital. In Latin the nouns "revol tus, revol ti or revol ti n" were derived from the past participle of the verb "revolvere", to turn over, to make sales, to have an excellent turnover, realization of capital. As such this capitalist concept appeared in many languages, e.g., as "revolucioun" in Middle English, as "revolver" and "revolution" in Old French.
The English verb "revolve", which is the heart beat of "revolution", expresses many things:
- In other words, inter alia, we have to examine very carefully what is the connotation of 'revolution' in the French, American, Industrial and Bolivarian revolutions. This could be a very tedious enterprise, yet let us just illuminate some theoretical aspects.
Nonetheless, for us in Venezuela the theoretical question remains: will we be able to poison the coming black mamba with its own venom? Until now we fought a valiant battle, but we did not succeed as yet, the war is still on.
Will and can the Bolivarian Revolution eventually succeed, to globalize itself, in solidarity with other revolutions?
Knoweth thyself! Knoweth thy revolution!
We should not forget that the capitalist mode of production became a dominant world order precisely because of its social revolution. Now it uses the very revolution to perpetuate imperialism and corporatism. As self defense, capitalism is an expert in producing ideology and practice. Hence, could we rally supersede capitalism with scientific socialist praxis and philosophic emancipatory theory?
Across the last two centuries tonnes of volumes have been written about the concept, form and content of revolution, here we can only highlight some aspects that pertain to our construction of socialism on a global scale. This is just an introductory approximation, more deliberations will follow.
In medias res, how is it possible that after a decade of fervent revolution in Venezuela and elsewhere, after April and December 2002, that so many students, youths and comrades still do not have the most rudimentary scientific knowledge about revolution, about capitalism, about socialism? All over Venezuela we have launched revolutionary projects and missions, and yet capitalism is flourishing all over.
What is happening?
Sincerely, comrades, what is going wrong?
What have we learned at school, at the university, about revolution? Let us look at our everyday concepts, at the "re-" generation of the current 'war of ideas', of 'full spectrum dominance': at words like religion, reform, renaissance, rearm, reaction, repeat, return, revolve, revolution. In re, all have something in common: the repetition, the regression, the repression, the return to the status quo ante rem, to the established world order. Except surplus value, they negate anything that is really excellent, extra, any exodus, exit or "ex-volution" out of this imperialist vale of tears.
As President Chavez urgently demands, of course, we must bury capitalism but not our revolutionary hatchet, our militant, scientific praxis and optimistic, philosophic theory. Also in this global depression, we should not forget the existence of a terrorist "Empire", and blindfolded begin to smoke our peace pipes with metropolitan leaders. Tactics, strategy and diplomacy is one thing, revolution is another matter. Myopic political amnesia should not occur here in Venezuela in 2009, not in Afghanistan, not in Iraq. The "opposition" and the CIA have refined their infiltration and tactics, they already occupy the "Alcaldia Mayor" (Mayor's office) of Caracas. Here in Venezuela they are applying the modern rainbow colored conception of modern "revolution". The problem is that nowadays everybody is a revolutionary, a liberator.
Under such circumstances today,Marx would say: I am NOT a revolutionary!
Nearly every week my under-graduate and post-graduate students at the University of The Andes want to know the following:
* What are the praxical seeds and roots of social revolutionary upheaval, of class struggle in Venezuela and elsewhere?
* What does the concept 'revolution' express? How can we begin to revolutionize, to change the world?Let us commence by stating, that before the French Revolution of 1789, during the class struggles of the bourgeoisie against the clergy and nobility, the word 'revolution' was still truer to its real, literal, etymological meaning. Ever since, it has acquired a galaxy of modern ideological meanings. We stand in the center of the thick jungles of Malaysia, the Congo and of Amazonia, and because of hundreds and thousands of trees around us , we are not able to see the forests anymore. We just see individual great gods, great men, great ideas and great races making individual great revolutions. Which are the idiomatic roots of our conception of revolution, but also of scientific and philosophic socialism? Is our revolution a social or a palace revolution?
Because so many of our comrades were never taught about the 'revolution' let us briefly get down to the ABC of revolution. In its manifold current meanings lies the core of revolutionary ideology, of mind and thought control. In the international mass media the term, especially associated with Venezuela, has acquired a dangerous, watery, a wishy-washy meaning.
Transhistorically, what do 'volver' and 'revolver' signify?
Inter alia, "volver" in Spanish means to "turn" or to "roll"; among other connotations the Latin or English prefix "re-" means to "return", to "roll back", e.g., to return loans, to "revolve" credit. Revolution was always a central economic and political term in business, in the European historic process of the accumulation of capital. In Latin the nouns "revol tus, revol ti or revol ti n" were derived from the past participle of the verb "revolvere", to turn over, to make sales, to have an excellent turnover, realization of capital. As such this capitalist concept appeared in many languages, e.g., as "revolucioun" in Middle English, as "revolver" and "revolution" in Old French.
The English verb "revolve", which is the heart beat of "revolution", expresses many things:
* to orbit a central static or moving point, like Mars around the Sun.
* to turn on an axis, to rotate like the planet Earth.
* to recur in cycles, like the crises of capitalism as predicted by Karl Marx.
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