- Capitalism and Alternatives -

Deputy Dan Defends Lark

Posted by: Deputy Dan on December 14, 1999 at 14:49:54:

If you go into some of the national parks in Africa, South America, and Asia which have a lot of monkeys and baboons, you will invariably see signs that say "Don't Stare at the Monkeys." Look into a gorilla's face in a cage and he doesn't care; look into his face in the wild and he'll try to kill you.

I'm not saying I'm a monkey, but I wouldn't run from the label. I'm not saying Lark is one, but maybe he wouldn't run from the label either. I think both Lark and I share a sense of not wanting to be stared down.

We're both young guys, you know. Committed to our ideals--the 'Cause' -- but also just a little ready for action now and again, too.

I can't speak for Lark here, but I have no idea what relevance Lenin and Trotsky have to the struggle in which I found myself. I mean, come on, we're talking about a guy who knocked off sailors and broke up cooperatives all for the sake of the 'vanguard party'. Even if we stretch our imagination somewhat and excuse Leninism as necessary for its own country in its own time, what does that have to do with me, in my country, 75 years later?


The boys I drink with don't want to hear about Lenin or Trotsky or how Stalin was a betrayer. Their minds aren't that finely tuned. And to be honest with you, neither is mine.

In less flippant tones, I know the people in my country don't give a rat's ass about Marx, Lenin or Trotsky, and it would be a waste of time to try to make them. People everywhere prefer homegrown heroes, not foreign ones whose names are remembered in infamy. And why bother trying to convince them? In the real world, what people do is they get organized and THEN throw up a spokesman. It's not the other way around.

Anybody who wants power should be disqualified from having i--if nothing else then for simply having wanted power in the first place. It is my intention to live my life as my constitution demands, not as some great party commands me.

And you can come talk to me about it "when your advisors heave their plastic/at your feet to convince you of your pain/trying to prove your conclusions should be more drastic/talk to me 'cause I'm sane"

But don't try staring me down and I won' try the same with you.

Deputy Dan



Follow Ups:

None.

The Debating Room Post a Followup