I guess, because I am a defector and wrote some anti-communist pages, you do not notice that I served the communist ideal through my entire life. What do you think I do right now? What do you think my webpages are for? You still do not understand the idea of communications, yes, and freedom of information... Not that long ago it was secret and elite. It was wrong.
Questions
KOG? Kingdom of God.
Notes
Project Utopia [ 2009 ] What else do I have to do to indicate that I am not against the idea of communism... in platonic sense.
In the democratic system, the necessary illusions cannot be imposed by force. Rather, they must be instilled in the public mind by more subtle means. A totalitarian state can be satisfied with lesser degrees of allegiance to required truths. It is sufficient that people obey; what they think is a secondary concern. But in a democratic political order, there is always the danger that independent thought might be translated into political action, so it is important to eliminate the threat at its root. --Noam Chomsky[1]
[IMAGE. Shaved Marx -- Kissenger] Another Jew, another small time prophet. Marx without the beard? How would he look like? Imagine it and you would know the name of the next millennium.
See _Anti-Marx_: I'm against marxism because it misleads us
by not seeing the triumph of communism. As usual, the disciples
misinterpreted the teacher. We all are working, we are working
hard, men and women....
In 1980 USSR looked good. Nothing was there to predict the
death of the giant. Not the invasion of Afghanistan. Moscow was a
"capital of history" (Zinoviev). And something was wrong with the
communist kingdom -- there were no communists, only bureaucrats
who called themselves communists. I was one of them. The great
communist dream lost its intellectual charms for the Russians.
The energy which brought this system into existence wasn't in
Moscow. The Specter of Communism, where was the history's
spearhead? I suspect that my decision to go to the United States
was based on suspicions that America had the energy of the
future. (It was time of American shame, the Iranian crisis. But I
do not trust politics; it's events are rarely a cause). What was
the nature of American potential?
Everything I heard about American spirit came as a contrast with the communist ideology.
Why is our Communist future inevitable?
Communism represents the wishes of humans (social animals).
As long as we insist on humanism, we have to march into a
totalitarian future. Animals must be controlled by the society,
by all. Especially, the human animals, the wicked of all.
What an irony to call the global New World Order a
post-communism! Oh no, comrades, global communization is to
occur. Yes, in reversed order! The state communism was only a
brief and violent introduction. Since societal communism uses the
culture as its means of penetration, the cultural revolution is
the first stage. The change of the mode of production and
ownership is the last phase. (Periodization of the communism era
was suggested by young Marx in 1844. The biggest problem is our
perception of history: we continue to count communism as a part
of the previous history, when in fact it's a new historical cycle
which will have a duration probably longer than all the history
we got. Marxists themselves are responsible for this paradox --
connecting communism with capitalism, when the two are different
in every way (length and nature). Our known history should be
considered as pre-history of communism. We are still under the
spell of the present when a few centuries our rather recent
accelerated western history have the same weight as the entire
era. Second perceptional failing -- sense of historical time,
when we believe that with the next stage the previous cultural
period disappears. We better see the new a dominant which
overpowers the past main motif, not necessarily fully replacing
it. Third, we view communism politically. We see Stalin and Mao,
the monster of state communism, as symbols not signs. Perhaps, we
are too close to understand the ideas of communism when we still
remember the pictures of the war communism. Maybe, we are too
emotional to understand the historical magnitude of the Gulag, we
evaluate it from the humanist tradition. The communist were not
radical enough in their intellectual attacks on modernity. They
should leave the dialectics behind in order to be true
revolutionary.)
Wise Marx anticipated the natural changes in the economy, in
his "The Possibility of Non-Violent Revolution" (an address of
the First International in 1872) he mentioned evolutionary
transition to communism. (To talk about anything peaceful in our
history, our "non-violent" is always just a degree of violence).
The most famous Russian marxist wrote "Imperialism As A Last
Stage of Capitalism."
Lenin knew the difference between Modernity (socialism) and
the After (communism).
The communists were right in their primitive instincts.
USA as a leader of the world has to become a leader of
communist ideology through technology. Practice as theory, very
marxist. It's not political correctness but a cultural revolution
which America has to undergo to bring its ideology in line with
global economic (communist) infra-structure. The super-structure
is a product of the economic base and comes in two forms -- pro
and contra: for communism and against it. I'm the later.
The utopian element of marxism is the most powerful and is
alive as never before. Call it Resurrection, Kingdom of God,
Communism and Postmodernism. I never understood why a negating of
the past is "forgetting" -- on the contrary, the negation is
institutionalization of the previous history. Economic formations
do not drop their yesterday but get them incorporated within the
New. At least, according to dialectics. Capitalism can't be
"fully" rejected, even in Marxist's mind. In a sense, the future
is always an improved (better) past. What's why we call it
PROGRESS.
EVOLUTION OF REVOLUTION AND REVOLUTION OF EVOLUTION
We, the ex-Soviet, got it wrong. From the cultural
viewpoint, the Soviet era does look as the great fall out of
humanity, history and culture. But the Bolsheviks aimed exactly
at that -- the great break with the past and even the present
(modernism). The state communism was a social experiment in
history, the attempt to go beyond the existing, to construct the
anti-thesis to "capitalism" -- to jump into the postmodern.
[Is it possible to be a marxist living in a communist
present? Marxism was a practical theory of transition to
communism. I find unproductive to think in marxist's terms (class
struggle), something like to talk about the Roman's attacks on
early Christians. It's all a matter of history. I feel that I've
been asked to go back in time to discuss the nature of "late
capitalism" which was already defined by the marxists of the turn
of the century as IMPERIALISM.[2] (I can't be a Marxist as it's
impossible to convert the Christians into Christianity --). I
have to remind myself not to go for "new" intellectual categories
when the existing ones are not fully understood. So, I use
"communism" instead of "pomo."]
I feel stupid. I feel as a party member. Maybe they are
right after all. We, the humans, are nothing but a construct.
Nazism is gone with Hitler; the post-war Germans are as different
as they are all from China. In 1992 in St. Petersburg City Hall I
witnessed the weekly meetings of the committee for renaming the
streets of the city. Their job was actually easier than of their
communist predecessors; they were restoring the previous names.
Leningrad became Petersburg again. But interestingly enough not
every name was brought back. The tzars didn't get it. Also, not
every Soviet hero was rejected. St. Petersburg is still situated
in the heard of Leningrad region. (Lenin's body is still in the
heart of Russia's capital -- the Red Square). I saw how the
plates with the old names were taken down and the new ones (in
two languages!) were put on the walls. I wondered what if
tomorrow instead of Anatoly I would be called Alexander, how
would Anatoly react? Well, in fact, that is exactly what took
place -- my name in English has very little in common with my
Soviet identity. So, how do I take it?
Since the only thing which matters is my performance, I, the
Russian, is dead. I'm nor renamed, but re-borne. What does Saul
have to do with Paul? In Moscow in the Ministry of Culture I met
all the same Soviet censors who became democrats overnight. Why
was I surprised? Did I not see before that the cross could be
replaced with the star? And back again. Did the communists
explain this phenomenon already? It's all depends on the
situation, the moment and the need.
I must be an idiot. I still wonder -- why didn't we
recognize the pomo as a begining of the communist era? Was Marx
overpraise? Why don't we give Hitler a credit for re-shaping
Europe? Napoleon didn't get so much bad rap. Why? Oh, the death
camps! The extermination of the Jews made a lot of sense not to
Hitler alone. Elimination of the whole class was logical for the
Russians. We are in charge of nature, history and universe -- why
not? Didn't we transform Japan into something else within a span
of one generation? I don't understand why are the existentialists
not another branch of marxists? Why can't Foucault or Deleuze be
seen as communist thinkers? Look at the their concepts of power
and in-dividual -- Trotsky and Stalin had their differences too.
What makes Clinton a "capitalist" leader? Why do I have to be
ashamed of the name "communist" like he does?
I don't want to pretend. I can't claim that I am a human or
an individual. I can't lie to myself. I can't do it anymore. I
want to die with some dignity even I have to have give up my
human dignity. What do I need it for? I don't think of myself as
a human. I am me.
I don't want to critique Marxism. This is a task for a
historian.... I'm not a historian. I'm a subject of history. The
talking monkey who tries to talk about its feelings under the
experiments of history. I reject the notion that my Soviet or
American experience are for nothing. I refuse to apologize for my
feelings. And I am not about to be brain-washed again. Postmodern
my foot!... I know that if I begin to talk about America as a
triumph of communist mentality, I'll be talking to myself. Well,
that's what I do anyway.
.... It's embarrassing that I wasted so many years (days of
creation) to figure out that PM is communism! The change and the
signs are everywhere.
"The Change"? (Clinton's 1992 Presidential campaign). How
about America's peaceful transition to communism?
Oh pomo revolutions! Very pleasant. Soft and sexy.
U.S.(S.R.): American future as the Soviet past.
Tell me, comrade.
What did Reagan or Gingrich's conservative revolutions
produce? Did they slow down the pace of communization? Maybe. But
it's only an attempt to control the speed of socialization.
Conservatism makes economic sense, balancing the budget has
little to do with a direction of America's evolution. Reforms in
taxation or education is only corrections. Globalization picks up
the speed with every decade. Ten years on Internet will change
the very fabric of our social culture. Government doesn't have to
exercise the control over the Internet -- Internet is a social
control (of information). Read Foucault. With the fall of
communist states the communism transforms from an ideology into a
culture. From discipline to control to customs. Society is the
discipline and control at its max! Our advances in technology
replacing previous apparatus of socialization.
State forms of communism were a necessary measure for the
countries behind the West. With globalization they are replaced
with societal forms. Lenin placed electrification as a condition
of communism: the industrial infrastructure has to be there in
order to form the new culture. Marx talked about industrial
society. We are the post-industrial.
Courage, comrade, all I can tell you -- it's possible to
live under communist dictatorship. The communist society is less
obvious than communist state in its suppressive nature. It's
inside you, not outside. Learn how to control a communist in your
mind and heart.
The communist conditions have to be seen as such -- the
given circumstances of your existence. This is a mode of history
no less than our previous history of humanism (the only history
we knew). Will humanism be fully replaced by technology? We are
at the very early stages of communism to imagine the future
forms. Will a man literally be a part of the whole?... I rather
think about the present. Like the Greeks, who were unconcerned
with the future. I have too much future every day.
The facts. Being a communist is my position, something like
citizenship. My real interest is in my relations with myself. I
can vote Republican or Libertarian, it makes little difference
for the overall direction of America. The majority rule
(Bolshevism) is the king of democracy. I already lived in the
communist democracy (freedom for the communists) and I have no
illusions that American democracy is the freedom for those who
have "American" values. What are they? I have to accept the cult
of sport celebrities, the way I had to live with the faces of the
Politburo. I think that advertizing is better (social) propaganda
and that is the reason why consumerism replaced the state
propaganda. I saw the brutal communism, I can take the communism
with a human face. Especially, if I am not human.
Still I have to remind myself who the president is (in order
not to be irritated by the stupidity). Clinton is still a better
looking guy than any of the Soviet leaders. Alas! I have to train
myself to stay focused, to mind my own business. I have things to
worry about to stay as MY-SELF, MY and SELF.
Of course, I'm anti-communist! Who else could I be? All of
us are. Some more, some less. I know about it and I don't
complain. Actually, I work as a communist.... (Big pause).I have
to talk again about living a double life. You see, you have to
develop this ability to be in two worlds at once. Well, that's
about the morals of the communism which is beyond good and evil.
Something true Machiavellian....
About lying and pretending, deception and cynicism,
indifference and cruelty.... what do you think they, the New
French, meant by "non-fascist" living? In order not to become a
fascist you have to act as a best one. Man from underground must
learn how to be a celebrity. I value my lessons in Soviet living
I ran way from. Of course, you can stay underground -- you always
there, inside yourself. You can completely withdraw from social
life, there is nothing novice about monastic mode. But only in a
conflict with yourself, an extreme conflict -- the clash of the
opposite personalities -- the true individual can be formed. Yes,
you have to divide yourself to conquer your "I." It's not only a
productive energy of power (Foucault), more -- a becoming the
power is the maximum of self-confrontation. Without living the
double life I would never come to understanding of my situation.
I was taught that it's a compromise. That's what they
thought in their human history. That's what the Russians call
"intelligencia.' The double life of masters before them didn't
bother the aristocrats. (Actually, the conflict between what is
right and wrong made them into masters). How abstract is the
common morality! Shall not kill? Really? Maybe I should say -- it
all depends. When, why and how?
Did they say -- the Folding? Why not extreme, the opposites?
Sounds crazy? Right. That's what I am, now I only have to master
this ability.
Why the extreme? Because I am in extreme conditions. I have
no home, family, nation, race, country, or class to be protected.
I have to be it all for myself, if I want to be MY-SELF....
Remember, communism is not a resolution of all previous
conflicts and contradictions. Communism is the extreme form of
drama. Read the extensive literature on tragedy. Go beyond it.
God is not tragic, he is a source of tragedy. I understand why
Dostoevsky was afraid to let the Grand Inquisitor to speak.
Dostoevsky had his hope. I don't. Do I need it? Too human.
The Double, the Multiple?
Is it possible? They told me that this is the road to
self-destruction. Yes, it's a dangerous path. But I have no
choice -- I'll be destroyed if I myself won't take it as my task.
Could one call it a free "choice"? Maybe it's the only freedom
and choice I have left.
Oh, man! Is everything allowed?
How far can you go? It's for you to decide. That's why it's
called the Last Judgement. That's why communism would go after
all and everyone. We can trust no one. Internet must be in every
home, V-chip in every tv set and MS-NBC in every brain. You
haven't hear the news yet, you don't know that Hitler is alive.
You know him. You don't know that he is you. There are six
billions of them. The new ones are born every moment. God has no
nature, not even humans who are in his image. And you thought
that you are safe.... That's what I mean by post-Christianity.
I know your panic. Make use of it. Go beyond the dread.
.... Of course, I knew it before my son spent two years in public school. I teach, I see them in class -- and for two, if not more years we struggle to compensate what they missed in their twelve years of incarceration. Nothing could be done. At least, not now. This is this soft communism at work. They say American educational system doesn't work. No, it works, it works all right...
I don't know what is more impressive -- the terrors of the twentieth century or our dismissal of them. We left behind the First World War, Nazism, Stalin, Mao, Pal Pot, Amin.... we are forgetting with a speed of light, velocity of our communications. Five hundred thousand vanished in one week in Rwanda -- by any historical standard it's a big number. Not to us. I have the same Soviet feeling that numbers matter little in the world of big numbers. Was it 20 or 30 millions dead on the Soviet side in the war with Germany? They still don't know. What is ten millions
nowadays?
We dismiss things. We put them behind us. Yesterday has no
power over today, only tomorrow. We have to go on! We have no
time for remembering. The Evil Empire is no more, gone, over....
There's a method in our lightness.
Do you remember the cultural revolutions of modernity? 1937
in Russia. 1967 in China? Culture of anti-culture. It was only
normal to get ahead of modernity, ahead of the West -- into the
postmodern! Socialism is a first face of communism. Socialist
Europe has over a century of history. America still goes through
socialization, we have to catch up with the socialism of the old
world. America is the biggest cultural revolution of all, true
cultural -- by the people, for the people, off the people. Most
invisible and therefore powerful, the revolution of CULTURE. The
more we cry about American individualism, the more I convinced
that an individual is the target. The class struggle taught me
that when the masses gain freedoms, I lose. Everything what is
good for them is bad for me. Good economy, peace, prosperity....
Does it mean that the opposite is true? WHATEVER IS BAD FOR THEM
IS GOOD FOR ME? Stalin would say -- yes; he was a man of steel.
Their misery and tragedies? They won't listen till then. In
paradise pain must be manufactured!
No, you don't have to be a marxist to be a communist. Since
the communism" failed" politically, I don't have to worry about a
perception that accepting communism as an ideology of hegemony I
take sides. I can take the communist side with a clear American
conscious because there are no communist states left....
Museums of history.
China, North Korea and Cuba. Yeah, what about them?
.... Nothing could be done. Not now. The great revolt of the twentieth century brought our Everyman to light; the vertical (classical and class) society is no more. What could I say? I am myself from there, the darkness and the low. Of course, they must not be foggoten, the last and the lost. So, we lowed everything to the TV level -- what else could you do with the billions... and more are coming to light. Come in, comrades! Come on!
....
Excuse me, sir. Is freedom possible in mass/global world? What kind of freedom, we should ask? Which brand do you prefer?
In the West industrialization was in place before the East
went for communism. The second task of Bolshevism was
Collectivization. What was it? Agricultural production
(productivity) or land ownership issue. Environmentalism goes
over the concept of private property. Private ownership is
stipulated so many laws that owning a land is in reality a
co-cooperative. Collective farms had a separate status from the
state property, kolkhozniks were co-owners.
The final gaol of communists was the Cultural revolution.
Since literacy became a law the education system enforced by the
state must be in place. In USA we call it "Federal laws."
Communist target was a creation of a new man: was it an
American? (see Engels in _Talk Show_)
Who is he, a true (natural) communist?
Politics is not a profession, according to the American
ideal (naive as any ideal) . That's what the communists dreamed
about when Lenin said that "every cook-maid should be able to
govern the country." And they did. And they do. What is most
radical in the statement --"Every One"! In an ideal situation it
should make no difference who will be a president. It should be a
random act. The election (selection) process outlived itself. The
only way to prevent the leader from gaining full authoritarian
powers (king) is to develop the system (bureaucracy), when he
could do very little. Lenin's formula should be seen as "All
cooks must govern the country." ("cooks" means all citizens).
This is full (communist) democracy.
My method is simple: I try to read the present day America
as a text using my experience of the Soviet grammatology. I'm too
old for a revolt or even a resistance. I ran away from my
communist shadow to discover that as usual the shadow is still
there and grows longer every hour.
"Our" v. "mine": when and how this balance was destroyed in
America. Step: from the Civil War to the Income tax. Two W wars
with the US standing army and the fifty years of the Cold War.
Leading (super) power in the New World Order (Global). What is
left of the American isolationism? Multi-national corporations
(concentration of capital) driven by the market, they had to
destroy the National (country).
Communism was politicized; in the early fifties it was
considered as "Anti-American" activity (but not the socialist New
Deal)! All the fifty years of the Cold war were post-modern in
appearance and nature. Surprisingly, none of the pm model was
applied to this new kind of war, when USA and USSR had never fire
a single shot at each other (B-2 story, cuban Crisis and Nuclear
Arms as a mutual deterrence). The conflict of two super-powers
was a clash of two concept of global future: American Age v.
Communism. Global Society against Global State. From the global
perspective it could be viewed as the first Global Civil War.
Both sides shared the physical space and the space of potential
time. They has a subject to fight over, i.e. it was an issue of
interpretation of the same doctrine.
Comparing the notes from the two times:
The communist party has no place in America, because America
is a field of communism. Utopia and American Dream -- what's the
difference? Of course, I thought that communists are in Russia.
That's what I was told. Communism is not just organizations or
even ideas -- but the feelings! (See _Generation_ in Father
Russia, _Netizen Epstein_). Everything American was under attacks
in the Soviet Union, including the most ridiculous like music and
fashion. The Iron Curtain and the Berlin was were erected for the
purpose to isolated the citizens of the utopia from "capitalist"
influence. The Party war against rock-and-roll lasted several
decades. It was a cultural war, or an ideological competition of
two brands of super-modernity. Both sides worked on social
programming of mind no less than on military technology. The
entire space program had more propaganda purpose than any
practical needs....
NOTES (ARE ALWAYS FROM THE UNDERGROUND):
I find myself in a peculiar position writing about communism. I ran away from it and I have to defend the integrity of the idea communism! I have to clean up the concept from trivialization, because communism is not our past but the future. I have to recognize my enemy, the powers and legitimacy of the new reality, in order for me to fight it. I remember the writing of the White Russians (Bunin) and the Red (Mayakovsky); they were bewildered by the apocalyptic experience of the revolution. There were no new words to describe it. Communism, ideology, party -- the new vocabulary was too new to have meaning. What language should they use -- Russian? Poor Gorki lost his mind and talent trying to connect the two histories: Russia and Communism. It was the end of local (national) histories and history itself. I understand the shock of a miracle; your every sense of reality is dismissed and you CAN'T believe it. The ones who were shot by the Cheka, shot themselves -- the time was too intense for a poetry. We do not have poets any more for that very reason -- we are in shock (_Future Shock_). For years I myself struggle with nothing more than a FACT of living in communist history. I deny it! I shake my head in disbelief -- is it really so?
After seventeen years in America I ask myself -- What a new
proof do you need? I know that I waste my time trying to avoid
the facts. My diaries are full of whining of a squeezed human.
There's little of (intellectual) values in my complains. I know
that I fight with my fate. What a ridiculous man!
There's a famous episode in Dostoevsky's life when he was
put in front of the firing squad. As you can read the similar
story in "War and Peace" when Pierre became a changed man. I can
die only once (at least, physically), but I can kill many times.
I always wanted to rewrite those famous pages. From a point of
view of a man in the firing squad, the one who knows that he is
about to shot Dostoevsky. The one who read "White Nights" and
knows who Dostoyevsky is, who understand that after he pulls the
trigger there will be no "Crime and Punishment" or "Brothers
Karamazov." And he does it, he aims at the heat (or head) and
shoot Dostoevsky dead. Next day is time for execution of Tolstoy.
I was this soldier. I stood next to the boys with rifles whose
job was to kill. For a day I had a military uniform, I swear my
ligeance to the country and the party. I was old enough to
understand everything -- I was 26 and I was a writer. I knew that
I could (should) be on the other side -- in front of the firing
squad.... If you are a democrat and think that Dostoevsky's life
has no more value than any other life, put in his place your
father, or a child. I know, you think that I exaggerate. After
all, I didn't shoot Dostoevsky or a child. I'm glad that I
didn't. I wasn't in Vietnam, Afghanistan or Chechnya. I wasn't in
Prague in 1968 and Beijing (Tiananmen Suare) of 1992 shooting men
LIKE myself. And I wasn't shoot at. I watch it from a safe
distance. BECAUSE I KNEW THAT I COULD BE THERE KILLING!
Is my American situation any different? I know that I am on
the side of the many who are executing the few. I look back at
the pre-communist times when the few had power over many and I
don't like it either -- if not Dostoevsky than a child still
there in front of me. "Why does it have to be this way?" I want
to ask and not allow myself to be rhetorical. I know -- it's a
war, it's a life, it always was and will be THIS WAY. But now
this man in front of me is place for an execution at random. I
don't know him. I kill him because that's the law -- to kill and
be killed. We call it an accident. We all drive, accidents do
happen. What do you want? People die. They die all the time. My
problem is that I do KNOW. I know that I am a participant. I am
still alive because I am smart, I am still in this uniform which
protect me from being executed. Strip it down and I will be there
naked, facing my death. I have to work, to move, to lie if I want
to survive. I have to play the game and the moment I'll stop
doing it I know what will take place. I see them, the losers. I
have to be strong, I have to stick to them, the winners. They
have bad breath or bad manners, but they are the power.
I see them behind the glass in their cars with their
cellular phones. I bet you don't know that phone is a weapon. You
think that your car is just a transportation vehicle. Don't you
know what they talk about on their car phone? You still don't
know why those new guns were invented? Why we want them? To be
out of the spot in front of the firing squad. Don't you how we
build this protection around ourselves, now more than ever. We
have to be insured against any possible disaster. I have my life
insurance (in case if I die!). I don't have a cellular phone. i
better get one soon. To be with them, to know the secrets.
I know you think that communists are in plain uniforms with
big red stars on their stupid hats. When the conservatives cite
the libertarian Rand with praises to capitalism and freedoms of
individual, I am silent. I go and vote with them. I lose with
them every time. Even this primitive anti-state message of the
libertarians is too much (500 thousand votes in 1996). You think
that China's capitalism could be run by the party communists, but
not American capitalism by the soft (humanistic) communists....
I have to be a (non-human) animal to notice how abnormal the
paradise is. Never take miracles for granted, young man. Feel it.
Deleuze & Guattari's "plateau": a non-narrative site of
continual intensity, reaching no end, desiring no "little death,"
but only the pleasures of mobility and continuation.... that's
how it feels, living in paradise. Non-structured,
non-totalitarian landscape. Like in a shopping mall; elevators
and escalators -- the earth is flat! Don't try to play a hero;
you'll looks like a fool! There are no mountains to claim in New
York City, even if you work on seventieth floor. No gravity; the
vertical is horizontal too. Where else the two dimensional man
could live? In two dimensional universe. Termites do not jump.
Non-narrative life can't be mortal or human. It's an existence of
a machine? Oh, great! Thanks.
The People's God, man's god (remember them, criticized by
Lenin, the Russian revolutionary God-builders) -- enough about
it. We don't need even to remember the name.
(Also, see _American_) + Fukuyama (The End of History)
