Revolution must strike twice 
Slavoj Žižek
- Lenin by Hélčne Carrčre d'Encausse, translated by George Holoch
The Left is undergoing a shattering experience: the progressive movement is being compelled to reinvent its whole project. What tends to be forgotten, however, is that a similar experience gave birth to Leninism. Consider Lenin’s shock when, in the autumn of 1914, every European social democratic party except the Serbs’ followed the ‘patriotic line’. How difficult it must have been, at a time when military conflict had cut the European continent in half, not to take sides. Think how many supposedly independent-minded intellectuals, Freud included, succumbed, if only briefly, to the nationalist temptation.
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Slavoj Žižek is a dialectical-materialist philosopher and psychoanalyst. He also co-directs the International Centre for Humanities at Birkbeck College. His most recent book is In Defence of Lost Causes (Verso).
Other articles by this contributor:
Attempts to Escape the Logic of Capitalism · Václav Havel
Freud Lives! · dreaming
The Two Totalitarianisms · Stalin applauded too
Use Your Illusions · Obama’s Victory and the Financial Meltdown
Don’t Just Do Something, Talk · the financial crisis
Are we in a war? Do we have an enemy? · Love Thy Neighbour
Bring me my Philips Mental Jacket · Improve Your Performance!
‘You May!’ · the post-modern superego
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