• amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml
    3·
    2 days ago

    I’m not sure I agree, but maybe you mean something different by anger and rage than I do. In my experience, they are usually volatile feelings that get in the way of clear-headed strategy, planning, and cooperation, and can cause great harm when people deal with it a chronic basis. I don’t dismiss them entirely, as rage toward injustice has its place. But also, rage toward injustice without strategy and planning is just riot, not revolution, and can easily fizzle out and be stamped out. Somehow, the righteous anger has to be channeled and that is the part that I’m getting at when I talk about the two kind of deceiving paths of openly barbaric conservative and cunning liberal pacifist. The conservative says, blindly use your anger. The liberal says, anger bad. It is clear to me that from a liberation perspective, neither of these are effective. So then the question becomes, what is the alternative, the liberation perspective on it. I think it is something to do with channeling the energy that arises from anger rather than dismissing it or blindly leaning into it.

    I also mean to distinguish between righteous justice and desire for revenge. Along the lines of what the rizzler emphasized, I think righteous justice in the liberation context is more about doing what is needed to liberate and then retain that power against the reaction, which obviously can include violence against the oppressor but isn’t about, like, “eye for an eye” or something, so much as it is about resolving lingering disputes and contradictions. Whereas desire for revenge may lead in a more adventurist direction, expending resources in an “eye for an eye” mentality rather than focusing on protecting and building a base of power. It is the revengeful side of things that I am most dismissive of in myself and don’t trust.

    • Commiejones@lemmygrad.ml
      2·
      2 days ago

      (don’t mistake my tone as preaching its just coming out that way. I’m not 100% wedded to this line of thinking but its where I am at.)

      Rage needs to be kept in check so you don’t do anything tactically stupid that ruins the overall strategy. But complete repression of our justified rage is in the interest of the ruling class and it is the hallmark of the “Compatible Left.”

      Rage is a good motivator and planning tool provided your longing for revenge/justice is based in your solidarity with the working class. (your suffering is the suffering of the working class, if they did it to you as a worker they would have done it to any other worker.) When you are class conscious, revenge and justice overlap because what makes you fill with rage is exploitation of the Working class.

      I think Revenge, Justice, Anger, and Planning can coexist. Say you keep a plan for operations on specific reactionary petite bourgeoisie, or uniformed regime thugs who have done you wrong, with the goal to secure supplies and weapons, and you know they will be counter revolutionaries till their last breath so getting them to that point is a part of the plan.

      I totally understand the fear of getting lost in the anger but if you are grounded in class consciousness and looking to the vanguard party you’ll know when the time of rage is over. Chances are you wont even get to indulge in revenge because there are way more angry workers than there are bourgeoisie. The chaos period of revolutions doesn’t last very long. The Russian revolution was a couple weeks of chaos. After that it becomes time to build class consciousness and prepare to resist counter revolution.

      This is a class war and when we counter attack we need to blitz and hit as many tactically important points as fast as we can before they know what is going on. If your list of targets is based on their acts against you as a member of the Working Class that is a good enough target. As you go, you will meet people with a similar list of grievances and coordinating with those revenge seekers is how you build a Peoples Army.

      So you use rage as a guide for planning. When the conditions are right let your rage drive you to action as it will drive the masses. When you meet others on a similar path it is time to sober up and direct the rage filled mob to strategic ends. Directing the mob by having a good long list of targets (formed while holding rage in check) provides intellectual clout and having performed front line actions (letting your rage loose) give the emotional appeal to increase your position in the mob allowing you to promote Class consciousness and Marxist Thought amongst the mob converting it into a Peoples Army.

      “Left-Wing” Communism: an Infantile Disorder with some interpretation by me in brackets:

      The first questions to arise are: how is the discipline of the proletariat’s revolutionary party maintained? How is it tested? How is it reinforced?
      First, by the class-consciousness of the proletarian vanguard and by its devotion to the revolution, by its tenacity, self-sacrifice and heroism. (This sounds like a nice way of describing angry MFs with class consciousness.)
      Second, by its ability to link up, maintain the closest contact, and—if you wish—merge, in certain measure, with the broadest masses of the working people—primarily with the proletariat, but also with the non-proletarian masses of working people. (appeal to the masses emotionally through actions)
      Third, by the correctness of the political leadership exercised by this vanguard, by the correctness of its political strategy and tactics, provided the broad masses have seen, from their own experience, that they are correct. (appeal to them intellectually with good targets that serve the strategic goal of the permanent overthrow of the ruling class)