https://www.takimag.com/article/the-seeds-of-moderate-defeat/The Seeds of Moderate Defeatby The Z Man
10/4/21
Excerpts:When the Bolsheviks seized control of the Russian state during the October uprising, it set off what would come to be known as the Russian civil war. It lasted from 1917 to 1923, when the Bolsheviks finally crushed their opposition. That is the most overlooked, but most important, part of the story. The czarist system had collapsed and in the wake of that collapse came a battle over what would replace it.
The two sides in the civil war were the Bolsheviks led by Lenin and the anti-Bolsheviks, an incoherent collection of army officers, property holders, various right-wing political groups, and socialists. They were united in their opposition to the radical restructuring promised by the Bolsheviks. This dichotomy would actually survive the civil war until Stalin put an end to it in the 1930s.
This type of conflict would eventually leak into the West and become the animating dynamic of liberal democracy. On one side is the minority faction of radicals promising to restructure society. The opposition is a disorganized collection of groups who only agree on their opposition to the latest radical innovations. In every case, the radical minority carries the day, defeating the ad hoc opposition.
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The trouble, as was quickly discovered by the Russians after the revolution, is that putting unbalanced lunatics in charge never ends well. Having that ridiculous sissy Mark Milley in charge of the military, for example, ensures a future disaster. Putting the legions of innumerate simpletons who make up the federal bureaucracy in charge of the economy is probably worse than communism.
The absurdity of empowering the managerial class to take full control of the economy and culture will not stop the radicals from carrying the day. That is the great lesson of Western liberalism. The radicals always win. The NEPmen of the Soviet system learned this the hard way. The so-called moderates of the inner party will soon learn the same lesson, although in less colorful fashion.
The consolation, if there is any, is that it will prove that you cannot defeat radicalism with moderation. The only antidote to the egalitarian madness of liberal radicalism is an equally fanatical illiberal radicalism. If the West is ever going to awake from this egalitarian madness called liberal democracy, it will start with Occidental people waking up to the reality of their situation. Only then can we Build Back Better.More at URL above...(emphasis above added by me)
