Morning Comrades!
I hope this dispatch finds you well and in good spirits. We live in revolutionary times, for the better and the worse and I wanted to share a few thoughts with you about patience, despair, perceptions and actions.
As always though, let’s get to the music part first, here is the 150th Black Lodges Weekly Jams for you. 3 full years of 2-3hr weekly playlists that have broadened my musical horizon hugely as I have pushed myself out of the same old metal darkroom to learn about new music and share that with you. I think it’s been a solid good ride and thank you for everyone’s feedback, week in and week out.
This is a most excellent week of tunes for you and me. Yes, I snuck in 2 “metal” tunes only because of their brilliance, again, Russian Circles dropped a new song from the upcoming album that is sounding like it is going to be their master piece. Torche snuck in there too but only because I utterly love their guitar tone. Other than that, again, some rap came about, blame the heat wave I guess, and so much more. There was one discovery I particularly wanted to share and briefly talk about and that is Nduduzo Makhathini, a mind blowing jazz artists from Umgungundlovu, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. I know, Jazz isn’t everyones cup of tea but it is mine, but saying that even if you don’t like Jazz, please gives this a good listen and spend time on this record. I haven’t come across a new jazz artist in a while that has excited as much as he has.
Sometimes History Needs A Push
As I stated earlier, I do believe we live in revolutionary times. A few thoughts on that. One, our perception of time is not only skewed but also manipulated. Secondly, the innate desire for leadership in times of uncertainty is way too easy to manipulate and we need to be aware of this. Last, history is a fickle friend written and re-written by victors and benefactors and our analysis of it, to shape the future is often built on half-truths.
The title of this dispatch is often quoted to be from Lenin. Thematically, that would make sense, and while some of his writing can be interpreted to be just that, he didn’t actually say this. Of course, this line is most often used in the context of revolutionary leadership claim - to which I have extremely clear ideas about but none of which are relevant here and today.
To illustrate how this misunderstanding works, a brief example:
Karl Marx wrote a letter dated April 9, 1863 that included a passage expressing a similar idea as the above in which the changes occurring during twenty years were compressed into days. The following English translation was published in 1985:
“Only your small-minded German philistine who measures world history by the ell and by what he happens to think are ‘interesting news items’, could regard 20 years as more than a day where major developments of this kind are concerned, though these may be again succeeded by days into which 20 years are compressed.”
In 1918 U.S. communist activist Louis C. Fraina published a translation of “The Proletarian Revolution in Russia” by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. Fraina wrote introductions and notes for some sections of the work. One of Fraina’s introductions contained a partial match in which years were compressed into months and days:
“But in a revolution, the masses are in motion; the developments of years are compressed into months and days…”
This then went on for another hundred years or so until back in 2020, Steve Bannon, the top tier villain in our story said this:
“There are decades when nothing happens, and weeks where decades happen.”
Which line to this day is still attributed, falsely, to Lenin. This is just to illustrate how vastly interchangeable our reading of history is. The fact remains that we are living in madly revolutionary times, again, both for the worse and the better. Even if we look at the last 20 years post 9/11 here in the West. - hell, I don’t recognize half of the shit I am seeing, having spent 20 years before 9/11 growing up. Specifically, on a cultural level “everything” has changed since then - and as far as I am concerned, predominately for the better.
This is where the question of perception comes in. On the one hand you have the folly of youth- the impatience of will in opposition to the material realities. I was there, and truthfully, large parts of me are still. Additionally, and this weighs into this understanding for more heavier than said folly, is that our perception of change & time is so utterly manipulated by the same forces that we are fighting against for change that it is almost impossible to see. That, obviously leads towards alienation, both in the Marxist concept and of modern individualism.
What you see, what you read, what you are being told is entirely based not only on a profit-based system ( war sells more papers than peace ) but, and on top of the top, the Silicon Valley generated algorithms push information on to you that you do not want to see, makes you angry and further isolates you. It generates more interaction on which their profit system is based. 10 years ago that was a conspiracy theory, now we know this to be a fact. This is utterly important to keep in mind when reflecting on your and our revolutionary struggle for better tomorrow.
To be absolutely clear, the revolution is not going to be led by one magically appearing person, it is not going to be announced, televised and won after a week, but it is already happening, been happening and will most likely outlive most of us. Every individual act counts, collectively, and even though “they” don’t want you to see and understand this, we are in the middle of it all.
I say this to at the very least attempt to lift, not only myself, but yourself out of the constant drain of having to exist under the ever intensifying fear, restriction and violence from the system and its pawns that know this, fear us and work day in and day out to stop a breaking damn. Hell, I know it’s tough to muster the energy but we are all and we will continue to do so because it is inherently the right and moral thing to do. Keep that in mind. It motivates me as I hope it can motivate you.
So no, there will not be a great revolutionary leader that pushes history, that is all of us, doing what we can, when and how we can.
Each according to their ability, each according to their need.
With that, onwards comrades.
Yours, without compromise,
V.
"So no, there will not be a great revolutionary leader that pushes history, that is all of us, doing what we can, when and how we can."
I think the above statement is so important for EVERYONE, but especially leftists to realize. There is no one coming to save us. Part of the reason I hate the praise of Elon Musk is that people act like they can sit back and wait for him to single handidly solve climate change (not that I think he could). It's crucial for us to realize change comes out of mass movement, not The Great Man Theory.