Thanksgiving Is Ruined |
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November 23, 2017
Remembering the Ten
Days that Shook Thanksgiving
This month’s 100-year anniversary enables the further
ruthless interrogation of this blog’s (pointless) namesake proposition, with another
dive into the historical record.
. . . Especially to attempt to answer further the question: Why exactly did it all kick off, anyway?
Was it the desire for bread?
For peace?
For freedom?
Of could there have been some other, heretofore overlooked
factor??
TiR leaves it to
the reader to decide that last question, by means of the below VI
quotes – each from throughout that crucial year exactly a century ago,
presented chronologically. Perhaps the attentive reader will detect a
certain recurring, drumbeat theme.
Each quote reproduced guaranteed 100% verbatim – TiR a s s u
r e s you.
3/19/17:
The following is an
absolute secret. Please reply to me immediately and, perhaps, best by express
(I think we won’t ruin the Party OR ITS THANKSGIVING (EDIT: TOO LATE ON THE
LATTER) by a dozen extra express letters), so that I can be sure no one has
read the letter.
3/26/17:
However, it was not
our impatience, nor our wishes, but the objective conditions created by the
imperialist war that brought the whole of humanity to an impasse, that placed
it in a dilemma: either allow the destruction of more millions of lives and
utterly ruin European civilization AND BY EXTENSION ITS THANKSGIVING, or hand
over power in all the civilised countries to the revolutionary proletariat,
carry through the socialist revolution.
3/30/17:
The least confidence
in this respect either in Milyukov or in Kerensky (an empty chatterer, an agent
of the Russian imperialist bourgeoisie in his objective role) would be simply
ruinous for the working-class movement and for our Party AND FOR OUR
THANKSGIVING.
4/17:
The masses must be
made to see that Blancism is ruining THANKSGIVING and will utterly ruin the
further success of the revolution UNTIL IT EVEN MORE CLOSELY RESEMBLES
THANKSGIVING IN THIS RESPECT.
4/4/17:
It’s all talk! Talk,
flattery of the revolutionary people, is the only thing that has ruined all
revolutions AND ALL THANKSGIVINGS. . . . This point of view spells ruin for
socialism, AND EVEN THE MOST UNLETTERED
PEASANTS KNOW THAT TO SPELL “RUIN” IS EFFECTIVELY
ALSO TO SPELL “THANKSGIVING.”
“Report
at a meeting of Bolshevik Delegates to the All-Russia Conference of Soviets of
Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies”
4/14-22/17:
All countries are on
the brink of ruin (OVER THE BRINK OF WHICH ALREADY HAVE FALLEN THEIR
THANKSGIVINGS); people must realise this; there is no way out except through a
socialist revolution.
4/24-29/17:
The present war,
therefore, has brought humanity to an impasse and placed it on the brink of
ruin, AND IF IT PLUMMETS OVER THAT BRINK, WHAT WILL IT FIND THERE WAITING? PRECISELY THIS: THANKSGIVING.
4/29/17:
Small and middle enterprises
are being squeezed out and THEIR THANKSGIVINGS ARE BEING ruined at a faster
rate than ever.
5/3/17:
Before the revolution
the land belonged to the landowners. That was not called anarchy. And what did
that lead to? It led to a break-down all
along the line, to “anarchy” in the fullest sense of the word, i.e., to the
utter ruin of the country’S THANKSGIVING, WHICH IN THIS RESPECT WAS REFLECTED
IN the ruin of the majority of population.
5/4/17:
What started this war,
what is it being waged for? . . .They
are carving up colonies and seizing territories in the Balkans and in Turkey --
and for this the European peoples must be ruined AS BADLY AS IS THEIR
THANKSGIVING, for this we must die, for this we must witness the ruin OF
THANKSGIVING (IF WITNESS IT WE DARE), NOT TO MENTION, starvation and death of
our families.
5/5/17:
Economic AND
THANKSGIVING-RELATED ruin, crisis, the horrors of war, an impasse from which
there is no way out—this is what the capitalists have brought all the nations
to.
5/15/17:
The old division was
based on the fact that Britain, in the course of several centuries, had ruined THE
THANKSGIVINGS OF her former competitors. . . . This rapid development of
capitalism in Germany was the development of a young strong predator, who
appeared in the concert of European powers and said: “You ruined THANKSGIVING!
ALONG WITH Holland, you defeated France, you have helped yourself to half the world
now be good enough to let us have our fair share.”
5/16/17:
To cloak an unpleasant
truth with a deceptive phrase is most harmful and most dangerous to the cause
of the proletariat, to the cause of the toiling masses. The truth, however
bitter, must be faced squarely. A policy that does not meet this requirement is
a ruinous policy AND BY “POLICY” WE NON-DECEPTIVELY MEAN “THANKSGIVING.”
5/19/17:
The alternatives are
either utter ruin OF, YOU GUESSED IT, THANKSGIVING or a revolution against the
capitalists. That is how the question stands. That is how the very trend of
events poses it.
5/23/17:
“The country’S
THANKSGIVING today is heading for ruin,” says Izvestia’s editorial. Correct.
For that very reason it would be unwise today to rely on the conciliatory
policy of the petty bourgeoisie, the Narodniks and the Mensheviks, with regard
to the capitalists. The country cannot be saved from ruin in that way – NOR, YOU
FINE NARODNIKS AND MENSHEVIKS, CAN ITS THANKSGIVING!
5/29-30/17:
Without universal
labour service, the country cannot be saved from THE INEVITABLE ruin OF ITS
THANKSGIVING . . . Every person is bound to stand for such measures if he
really wishes to save tens of millions OF THANKSGIVINGS from ruin and disaster.
6/1/17:
Socialists are out to
make only the landowners and capitalists “abdicate”. To deal a decisive blow at
those who are defying the people the way the colliery owners are doing when
they disrupt and ruin production, IF YOU COULD CALL IT THAT, OF THANKSGIVING,
it is sufficient to make a few hundred, at the most one or two thousand,
millionaires, bank and industrial and commercial bosses, “abdicate” their
property rights.
6/13/17:
It’s like a madhouse,
with the capitalists acting in collusion with the bourgeois section of the
Provisional Government (among the members of which are Mensheviks and
Socialist-Revolutionaries), with the capitalists using obstruction and wrecking
tactics, and doing nothing to ship their products, without which the country is
facing ruin – AS HAS ALREADY FACED THANKSGIVING, WHICH, CONSEQUENTLY AND TO REPEAT, WILL FEEL THAT IT’S
LIKE A MADHOUSE.
7/5/17:
The masses will learn
from their own experience. The sad experience of the new stage of the war (a
stage already begun), of further ruin OF THANKSGIVING (AND WE SAY “FURTHER”
BECAUSE, THE EXPERIENCE OF THE MASSES IS THAT IT ALREADY IS), accentuated by
the offensive, will inevitably lead to the political downfall of the
Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik parties.
Fall 1917:
The government
violates the law by adopting, in the interests, of the rich, the landowners and
capitalists, a measure which ruins the whole business of control AND THE WHOLE
BUSINESS OF THANKSIVING, food supply and the stabilisation of the extremely
shaky finances.
“The
Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It: Government Disruption of the
Work of the Democratic Organisations”
9/14/17:
These words contain
the most thoughtless, the most monstrous untruth concerning the most important
Issue of the revolution, an untruth, moreover, which has most often been put
about, in vastly differing countries, among the petty-bourgeois democrats and
has ruined the greatest number of revolutions AND THE ENTIRE NUMBER OF
THANKSGIVINGS.
9/22/17:
The revolutionary
proletariat would never do anything worthwhile in the Soviet as long as the
Tseretelis were allowed proportional participation; to let them in meant
depriving ourselves of the opportunity to work, it meant the ruin of Soviet
work AND OF THANKSGIVING. THANKS A
BUNCH, TSERETELIS!
9/22-24/17:
There is not the
slightest doubt that at the "top" of our Party there are noticeable
vacillations that may CAUSE THANKSGIVING EVEN MORE COMPLETELY TO become
ruinous, because the struggle is developing; under certain conditions, at a
certain moment, vacillations may ruin the cause OF THANKSGIVING EVEN MORE THAN
IT IS.
9/29/17:
If even the experience
of the Kornilov revolt has taught the "democrats" nothing, and they
continue the destructive policy of vacillation and compromise, we say that
nothing is more ruinous to the THANKSGIVING OF THE proletarian revolution than
these vacillations.
10/17:
The Bolsheviks would
be traitors to the peasants, for to tolerate the suppression of the peasant
revolt by a government which even Dyelo Naroda compares with the Stolypin
government would be to ruin THANKSGIVING AND EVEN the whole revolution, to ruin
it, AND BY “IT” WE OF COURSE MEAN THE PEASANTS’ THANKSGIVING, for good . . . For it is my profound
conviction that if we "wait" for the Congress of Soviets and let the
present moment pass, we shall ruin the revolution AS COMPLETELY AS IF IT WERE THANKSGIVING.
10/1/17:
If the Bolsheviks were
to yield in any form and in the slightest degree to the philistine stupidity of
this argument they would ruin their Party, THEIR THANKSGIVING (WE MEAN: EVEN FURTHER, WHICH WOULD BE
THE VERY DEFINITION OF PHILISTINE STUPIDITY) and the revolution. . . . That is
why I say that if the Bolsheviks were to give in to these moods they would ruin
both their Party and their revolution AND THEIR THANKSGIVING, NOT THAT MY
WRITING STYLE IS REPETITIOUS OR ANYTHING.
10/6-8/17:
War and THANKSGIVING’S
economic ruin have forced all countries to advance from monopoly capitalism to
state monopoly capitalism. This is the objective state of affairs.
10/7/17:
We must admit that
unless the Kerensky government is overthrown by the proletariat and the
soldiers in the near future the revolution is ruined, AS IS THANKSGIVING, TO WHICH
KERENSKY WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN INVITED ANYWAY.
12/6/17:
The people will not
allow the rich to ruin THANKSGIVING ANY MORE THAN IT ALREADY IS, NOR the cause
of peace they uphold.
“Draft Of A Manifesto To The
Peasantry: From The Second
All-Russia Congress Of Soviets Of Peasants’ Deputies”
12/14/17:
The imperialist war,
the war between the biggest and richest banking firms, Britain and Germany,
that is being waged for world domination, the division of the spoils, for the
plunder of small and weak nations; this horrible, criminal war has ruined
THANKSGIVING EVEN MORE CONSISTENTLY, RESOLUTELY AND DECISIVELY THAN WAS
PREVIOUSLY THE CASE, ALONG WITH all countries.
12/14/17:
This is the way of the
bourgeois intelligentsia, of all conciliators, who ruin everything, WHICH
LOGICALLY ENCOMPASSES THANKSGIVING, with their constant agreement in principle
and disagreement in practice. . . . The adoption of the decree is urgent,
otherwise opposition and sabotage will ruin us – AND YOU KNOW WHAT WE WOULD THEN
BE EXACTLY LIKE? THANKSGIVING. (Stormy applause.)
“Speech On The Nationalisation Of
The Banks: Delivered At A Meeting Of The
All-Russia Central Executive Committee”
12/24-27/17:
The war, brought about
by the conflict between capitalists for the division of the spoils of
depredation, has resulted in untold ruin OF THANKSGIVING, WHICH, WHILE “UNTOLD,”
DOES NOT EXCLUDE THE LIKELIHOOD THAT I WILL WRITE ABOUT IT AT GREAT LENGTH.
The world-historical implications of the above discoveries
are obvious and, of course, staggering.
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