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The Psychology of Bolshevism
The Psychology of Bolshevism
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Perhaps it is worth mentioning at the outset that John Spargo makes a distinction between Bolshevism and Marxism, on the one hand, and between Soviets and Bolshevism on the other hand. The Bolshevists, according to the author, have aped Marx without really understanding his philosophy. Marxism after all was an intellectual system designed to vindicate the rights of the masses without denying great differences in men. Bolshevism, to quote from the book, is a composite of the following characteristics: "Exaggerated egoism, extreme intolerance, intellectual vanity, hyper-criticism, self-indulgence, craving for mental and emotional excitement, excessive dogmatism, hyperbolic language, impulsive judgment, emotional instability, intense hero-worship, propensity for intrigues and conspiracies, rapid alternation of extremes of exaltation and depression, violent contradictions in tenaciously held opinions and beliefs, periodic, swift, and unsystematic changes of mental attitude."
In other places the author adds to this list of undesirable traits, but it will be seen from the foregoing that the psychological viewpoint affords but a gloomy picture, whatever our regard for external conditions. The book is frankly condemnatory of the bolshevist temperament.
Yet a cure of the distemper is at hand, if we will but avail ourselves of it. The means to health is, in a word, justice. "There is only one force which can kill Bolshevism, namely, justice." Mere manhood suffrage and a fair wage as hitherto defined will not answer. Labor must be allowed a share in the management of capital and thus help change our old representative principle. "It is probable that the best features of Soviet government will be grafted on to the political State."
Bolshevism, then, is a rule of the mob, though an intellectual tinge is added by a few outstanding leaders. It is a proletocracy as against an aristocracy familiar to all of us. The hysteria of bolshevism will pass, must pass, or else civilization is doomed to perish.
John Spargo's book is more than a study of states of mind, a fact which adds materially to its value, since it must be confessed that great socio-economic movements cannot be explained psychologically. The survey of conditions and policies in the United States, which the author believes aided the Industrial Workers of the World, the Bolshevists of America, is therefore doubly welcome.
In other places the author adds to this list of undesirable traits, but it will be seen from the foregoing that the psychological viewpoint affords but a gloomy picture, whatever our regard for external conditions. The book is frankly condemnatory of the bolshevist temperament.
Yet a cure of the distemper is at hand, if we will but avail ourselves of it. The means to health is, in a word, justice. "There is only one force which can kill Bolshevism, namely, justice." Mere manhood suffrage and a fair wage as hitherto defined will not answer. Labor must be allowed a share in the management of capital and thus help change our old representative principle. "It is probable that the best features of Soviet government will be grafted on to the political State."
Bolshevism, then, is a rule of the mob, though an intellectual tinge is added by a few outstanding leaders. It is a proletocracy as against an aristocracy familiar to all of us. The hysteria of bolshevism will pass, must pass, or else civilization is doomed to perish.
John Spargo's book is more than a study of states of mind, a fact which adds materially to its value, since it must be confessed that great socio-economic movements cannot be explained psychologically. The survey of conditions and policies in the United States, which the author believes aided the Industrial Workers of the World, the Bolshevists of America, is therefore doubly welcome.
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