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This blog started life as the rantings of a “Grumpy Old Man” on another site. As I wrote the blogs for that site I realised that most of the articles sounded like the rantings of a former communist who had retired many years ago from actively working to achieve a socialist revolution.
That is because that is exactly what I am. I am a former politically active would-be Bolshevik who retired from the fight for a communist society a long time ago.
But retiring from being an active revolutionary does not make you stop caring. In most cases, ex-bolsheviks have just become cynical about the possibility of changing things. So they sit on the sidelines and throw sarcastic barbs and snipes at the mainstream, without organising to overthrow the ancient regime and establish a new socialist world order.
And that is where I found myself. On the sidelines. Sniping.
Even 40 years after my time as an active revolutionary, the anger does not subside. Anger about the injustices, lies and deceits of the capitalist establishment: politicians, news media, and commentators. The anger does not go away.
So, I had a choice. Either I develop ulcers, high blood pressure and go on to have a stroke, or I get some of this stuff off my chest.
I decided to get it off my chest.
Most people are not revolutionaries. I consider myself a revolutionary, in the sense that when (and I believe it is a when, not ‘if”) the whole capitalist system goes tits up, I will welcome with open arms the revolutionary alternative to a world driven by the drive for profit and the alienation of working people from the world, the assets, and the riches they have created.
I do not think I will be playing an active role in that revolution. Revolutions are made by young people, predominantly. And if I was the same age now as I was when the events of 1968 rocked the capitalist establishment, I would be on the front line again.
But I think it is important to put ‘out there’ an alternative outlook to the capitalist or ‘bourgeois’ assumptions that are promulgated in the media. It is a small contribution. Totally inadequate, I know. But like I said, it’s either that, or I explode.