By Primož Lampič (Časnik)
If the younger part of the Slovene population falls prey to the Levica party’s precocious delusions, it is looking bad for us, and for several reasons: first because it would be proof that most sensible young people have already gone abroad, and then because Slovenia after almost fifty years of so-called permanent revolution (1945–1990), which in political, economic and social terms was only a complete waste of time, again began to step in the wrong direction and lag even further behind the normal, developed world.
For more than a year now, we have been monitoring the performance of the Levica Party in the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia and the excesses of its supporters on the streets – we all still remember famous political cyclists who woke up again in May 2021 as May beetles – but in the country there is an epidemic, all kinds of health-based restrictions have been imposed, and those responsible are already worried about how to mitigate the consequences of the expected economic downturn. Many wonder how it is possible that these people cannot at least give peace if they do not already have any constructive ideas.
How come they are taking advantage of this situation to overthrow the government in any way. They claim that they would have ruled better, even though they had the opportunity to do so a year ago, but they simply fled the scene when it was necessary to act quickly and effectively for the good of Slovenia. Why should there always be “sand in the state wheel”?
- Is this just a reflection of their lust for power?
- Is it about managing the five billion European funds coming to the country?
- Do they also like the ten billion demographic fund?
- Is there something fourth in the background?
Prediction of the anti-capitalist Levica Party
All of the above factors actually drive the so-called moderate left, and time and again the surprising factors are the ideological discourse and bitterness of some individuals who act from the positions of the radical Marxist left and have organised themselves in the Levica Party. What drives them? Where do they draw ideas and incentives for their interventions? Is it true that they are powered by the rigid Marxism of the 19th century, which we sometimes sense?
In fact, sociologist Rastko Močnik indirectly announced the anti-capitalist party in Mladina as early as mid-2010. In its statute today, the Levica states the social transformation into democratic and ecological socialism as the goal of its activities. The statute does not describe in any way what this is supposed to mean and by what methods it is supposed to get there, as no other company in the world has succeeded in doing so. Given what has hitherto been advertised as democratic socialism, however, it seems that, as the ancient Latins would say, contradictio in adiecto, i.e. contradiction in words such as e.g. honest thief, dry water, etc.; in derivation they would say: it is either democratic or it is socialism!
It seems that the majority of the MPs of the Levica Party are not yet forty years old and as such, in every respect, the young party is also targeting the younger population who have just finished high school or are already studying. Members of their electoral base have therefore barely reached the age of majority and thus the right to vote or to be elected. They are mostly taken care for by their parents, and most of them do not have the property to be responsible for the consequences of their decisions and actions.
Let us recall Močnik’s records in Mladina from the times when the idea of the Levica Party was formed. I doubt that both members of the Levica Party and their electoral base are reading the Marxist classics of the 19th century en masse, perhaps some of their excerpts from the 20th century, and no doubt many of them are reading Mladina. As is well known, soon after independence it became an unofficial newsletter for young people from the left wing of Slovene politics or some sort of their ideological fast-food. So is it possible to read something there that could inspire them to obvious destructiveness?
Of course. Let us only remember Močnik’s interviews and articles he gave or wrote for this weekly in 2009-2016, when the idea of today’s Slovene radical left was formed. They present him – unfortunately justifiably – in the absurd position of a hardened communist of the last century and a sharp opponent of capitalism and NATO, thus a man who is against almost everything in this world. In addition, nonsensical claims are boiling out of him, for example that Slovenian politicians do not know how to save Slovenia from sinking to the periphery (as if it were ever at the center of anything); further, that capitalism supposedly slipped into totalitarianism without legal-political regulation (as if no other known system that exists or has ever existed on Earth has), and that, as Marx has supposedly thought in the middle of the 19th century, capitalism without state interventions would automatically pass into socialism (however, for more than thirty years we have been looking at the exact opposite process around the world).
Is Močnik a revisionist?
Here and there, Močnik even falls into terminological confusion, as, for example, the Chinese system is called capitalism, although China is led by the Communist Party, which is a grim example of all modern totalitarianisms after systematic human rights violations, while capitalism is known for the personal freedom of the individual, which was even formally recognised by Marx. Močnik’s statement that history is not logical is also strange in this context, because Marxism is precisely the view that history has the expected stages of development and a predictable end… Is Močnik a revisionist?
With him, you will find plenty of such and other Marxoidisms, catastrophisms, exclusivisms, groundbreaking, untenable analogies, aggressive radicalisms, unprovable prophecies and provably unrealisable ideas. They belong to his personal and, more broadly, to the Marxist self-referential – English philosopher Roger Scruton would say “religious” – world that has never had contact with real life or seen people and cultures in their real image.
Močnik’s views imply violence
It is more dangerous that in this bubble of thought anti-capitalism – according to a more than one hundred and fifty-year-old communist recipe – is still associated with the idea of a world social revolution. Močnik, for example, in principle calls for a peaceful transition, while all his other rhetoric is indirectly militant: he talks about the planetary people’s front, the unproductiveness of parliamentary politics, the need to put pressure on institutions from outside, the demand for the abolition of capitalism, which will be more radical and will require more sacrifices as soon as it appears, and so on.
Such views imply violence. All social revolutions were bloody, they started that way and their course was bloody, but for the most part they ended in blood, and in today’s world, bound by countless ties, talking about a global violent coup is an extremely dangerous madness. No matter where it started, if it really spread globally, hundreds of millions would lose their lives in a relatively short time, especially the poorer ones for whom revolutionaries are supposedly fighting the most, and most others would be doomed to scrape along. Namely, reproduction chains, trade flows, economic, transport and energy ties, on which all countries and all continents are interdependent, would be broken in an instant. An example of a revolutionary complication on a small scale is today’s Myanmar, which has a good 54 million inhabitants. The media reported daily on dozens who had fallen under the fire of the coup army, however no one spoke of short-term and long-term economic damage.
The comrades in the Levica Party are actually dreaming of a revolution
According to Močnik, three conditions are necessary for a revolution: permanent organisation, permanent ideological preparation and a state of emergency. So here is a springboard for our Levica Party! They have a party, writers like Močnik take care of the briefing, they work in public, some of them are no doubt behind the scenes, and the deadly Chinese virus has conveniently plunged society into emergencies.
It seems, then, that the comrades in the Levica Party are actually dreaming of a revolution and, therefore, they in no way bring together a single constructive idea of how to help society in a crisis situation. On the contrary – they are acting in such a way that the tensions and hardships of the state of emergency would deepen with their behaviour in the parliament and that, fortunately for them, the state would start collapsing on its own. And then they would come and save Slovenia with the fiery sword of Marxist theory?!
At the same time, also in Mladina, Slavoj Žižek also supported this line with a statement – he supported it with arguments that are not accessible to ordinary people – that only the radical left can solve what is worth saving from the liberal heritage. In this context, his presentations of the views of the “underground of the radical left”, as he calls it, from the times of the refugee crisis are also interesting. We are astonished to learn that some leftists from the developed world saw in the masses of refugees an opportunity to fill the gap of the missing proletarians with imports from elsewhere and thus secure a revolution. Žižek explicitly distanced himself from these tendencies, but we can never know whether our radical left deliberately looked at him superficially and thus – as we say – “came to taste”, saying that a communist revolution is still possible.
Sick ideas that need to stay on the fringes
If the younger part of the Slovene population will fall prey to these precocious delusions, it will be really bad for us, and for several reasons: first because it would be proof that most sensible young people have already gone abroad, and then because Slovenia would after nearly thirty years of the so-called permanent revolution (1945–1990), which in political, economic and social terms was only a complete waste of time, again began to step in the wrong direction and lag even further behind the normal, developed world.
Ideas about a world communist revolution are sick, but they could short- and long-term harm the relatively small, for every negative change sensitive Slovenia. The state, with the help of thoughtful, well-meaning people, must unconditionally bring them to the margins where they belong. With targeted, well-thought-out measures and incentives, it should try to keep educated young people to stay at home after completing their education, and necessarily adjust the education system to the interests of Slovenia as a free and sovereign state. Since it does not need to slip back into revolutionary chaos, it should also consistently apply the laws and means provided for any perpetrators.
Source: Slovenski čas
