If the younger part of the Slovenian population falls prey to the subversive delusions of the Levica party (the Left), then we are in for a rough ride – for several reasons: firstly, because it would be proof that most sensible young people have already left our country and moved abroad, and secondly, because after almost fifty years of the so-called permanent revolution (1945-1990), which was nothing but a waste of time in the political, economic and social sense, we would once again start walking in the wrong direction and consequently fall back even more behind the normal, developed world.
For more than a year now, we have been watching the performance of the Levica party in the National Assembly, as well as the excess of its supporters on the streets – we all still remember the infamous political cyclists who woke up again in the spring of 2021, as if they are the May beetles – however, our country is in the midst of an epidemic and all kinds of health-based restrictions have been imposed, and the people in power are already worried about how to mitigate the consequences of the expected economic downturn that will likely follow. And since these people have no constructive ideas, many are wondering why can’t they at least leave the government alone and let it work in peace?
Why are they taking advantage of the current situation in order to overthrow the government in any way possible? They claim that they would have been better at ruling, even though they had the opportunity to do so a year ago, but they simply fled the scene as soon as they were actually supposed to act quickly and effectively for the good of Slovenia. Why are they always trying to complicate things?
- Is this just a reflection of their insatiable desire for power?
- Is this it about managing the five billion euros of European funds that the country will soon receive?
- Is it also because they want to get their hands on the ten billion euros of the demographic fund?
- Is there something else going on in the background?
Predictions of the anti-capitalist Levica party
All of the factors mentioned above actually drive the so-called moderate left; however, time and time again, we are also surprised by the ideological discourse and bitterness of certain individuals who act from the position of the radical Marxist left, who have organised themselves to form the Levica party. What drives them? Where do they draw the ideas and incentives for their interventions from? Is it true that they are powered by the rigid Marxism of the 19th century, which we can practically sense sometimes?
In fact, sociologist Rastko Močnik indirectly announced the creation of an anti-capitalist party in the Mladina magazine as early as mid-2010. In its current statute, the Levica party writes that social transformation into democratic and ecological socialism is the goal of its activities. The statute does not describe in any way what this is supposed to mean and with which methods they are planning to get there, as no other society in the world has actually succeeded in this endeavour before. Given what has hitherto been advertised as democratic socialism, it seems that it is, as the ancient Latins would say, a contradiction in adjecto, so a contradiction in words, such as: an honest thief, dry water, and others. What follows from this is that in derivation, you could say: either it is democratic, or it is socialism!
It seems that the majority of the deputies of the Levica party are not even forty years old yet, and as such, in every respect, they are a young party that is also targeting the younger population, which has just finished with high school or is currently studying. The members of their electoral base have, therefore, barely reached adulthood and thus the right to vote or to be elected. Mostly their parents still take care of them, and most of them do not have the property through which they could be held accountable for the consequences of their decisions and actions.
Let us remind you of Močnik’s article from Mladina, from the times when the idea of the Levica party was still being formed. I doubt that both members of the Levica party, as well as their electoral base, are reading the Marxist classics of the 19th century en masse, perhaps some of them are reading their excerpts from the 20th century, and we can be pretty certain that most of them are reading Mladina. As is well known, soon after Slovenia declared its independence, Mladina became the unofficial newsletter for young people from the left wing of Slovenian politics or some kind of their ideological fast food. So, is it possible that they are reading things in Mladina that inspire them to such obvious destructiveness?
Of course. Let’s just think back to Močnik’s interviews and articles he wrote for the weekly Mladina, between the years of 2009 and 2016, when the idea of Slovenia’s current radical left was being formed. They portray him – unfortunately justifiably – in the absurd position of a hardened communist from the previous century and a severe opponent of capitalism and NATO, that is, a man who is opposed to practically everything in this world. In addition, nonsensical claims are practically spilling out of him, for example, the claim that Slovenian politicians do not know how to save Slovenia from sinking to the periphery (as if we were ever the centre of anything), and further; that capitalism is supposed to slip into totalitarianism without any legal-political regulation (as if that has not happened to practically every known political system which exists or has ever existed on the face of the Earth), and that, as Marx had already said in the middle of the 19th century, capitalism without state intervention would automatically turn into socialism (despite the fact that we have seen the opposite happening for more than thirty years all around the world).
Is Močnik a revisionist?
On occasion, Močnik even falls into terminological confusion, as, for example, he calls the Chinese system capitalist, despite the fact that China is led by the Communist Party, which is a grim role model for all modern totalitarianisms due to its systematic human rights violations, while capitalism, on the other hand, is known for promoting the personal freedoms of an individual, which even Marx himself was willing to admit. Močnik’s statement that history is not logical also seems quite odd in this context, as it is precisely Marxism that believes that history has the expected stages of development and a predictable end… Is Močnik a revisionist?
You will find plenty of similar Marxisms, catastrophisms, exclusivisms, ground-breaking, unbearable analogies, aggressive radicalisms, unprovable prophecies, and provably unrealisable ideas in Močnik’s texts. They belong to his personal and, more broadly, the Marxist world – as the English philosopher Roger Scruton would say, “religious” world – which never had any actual contact with real life or seen people and cultures as they actually are.
Močnik’s views imply violence
What is more dangerous is that in this thought bubble, anti-capitalism is still associated with the idea of a worldwide social revolution – according to the more than one hundred and fifty-year-old communist recipe. Močnik, for example, calls for a peaceful transition, in principle, while the rest of his rhetoric is indirectly militant: he talks about a planet-wide people’s front, about the unproductiveness of parliamentary politics, the need to put pressure on institutions from the outside, the demand for getting rid of capitalism, which will supposedly be a radical move and will require more and more casualties, the later we get to it.
Such views imply violence. All social revolutions were bloody, they started that way, and their course was also bloody, but for the most part, they ended in blood, and in today’s world, bound by countless ties, talking about a global violent coup is an extremely dangerous form of madness. No matter where it started, if it really spread globally, hundreds of millions would lose their lives in a relatively short time, especially the poorer people for whom the revolutionaries are supposedly fighting the most, and most others would be doomed to live a terrible life. In a moment, the re-checks, trade flows, economic, transport, and energy ties, on which all countries and all continents are interdependent, would be broken. An example of a revolutionary complication on a smaller scale is today’s Myanmar, which has over 45 million inhabitants. The media reported daily on dozens of people who had fallen under the fire of the coup army, and no one is talking about the short-term and long-term economic damage.
The comrades from the Levica party are actually dreaming of a revolution
According to Močnik, three conditions are necessary for a revolution: permanent organisation, permanent ideological preparation and a state of emergency. So, this is the starting point of our Levica party! They already have a party, writers like Močnik take care of the briefing, their actions are public, some of them are no doubt also working from behind the scenes, and the deadly Chinese virus has conveniently plunged society into a state of emergency.
It seems, then, that the comrades from the Levica party are actually dreaming of a revolution and that they are therefore not able to come up with a single constructive idea on how to help our society in the current crisis situation. On the contrary – they are acting in a way that is likely to cause the tensions and hardships of the state of emergency to deepen due to their behaviour in parliament, which would mean that, fortunately for them, the state would start collapsing on its own. And then they would appear and save Slovenia with the fiery sword of Marxist theory?!
What also happened in Mladina is that Slavoj Žižek supported this line as well, with a statement – which he supported with arguments that are not accessible to ordinary people – saying that only the radical left can solve what is worth saving from the liberal heritage. In this context, his presentations of the views of the “underground of the radical left,” as he calls it, from the times of the refugee crisis, are also interesting. We were astonished to learn that some leftists from the developed world saw the masses of refugees as an opportunity to fill the gap of missing proletarians with imports from elsewhere and thus secure a revolution. Žižek explicitly distanced himself from these tendencies, but we can never know whether or not our radical left deliberately read his texts a bit superficially and thus – as we have already said – started to believe in the idea that a communist revolution is still a real possibility.
Sick ideas that need to stay on the margins
If the younger part of the Slovenian population falls prey to these subversive delusions, then we are in for a rough ride – for several reasons: firstly, because it would be proof that most sensible young people have already left our country and moved abroad, and secondly, because after almost fifty years of the so-called permanent revolution (1945-1990), which was nothing but a waste of time in the political, economic and social sense, we would once again start walking in the wrong direction and consequently fall back even more behind the normal, developed world.
Ideas about a world communist revolution are sick but relatively limited for now, and they could be extremely harmful to Slovenia, short-term and long-term, as it is sensitive to any negative changes. The state, with the help of thoughtful, well-meaning people, must unconditionally drive these ideas to the margins, where they belong. With targeted, well-thought-out measures and incentives, it should try to keep educated young people to stay at home after completing their education and necessarily adjust the education system to the interests of Slovenia as a free and sovereign state. Since we do not need another slip back into revolutionary chaos, Slovenia should also diligently and consistently apply the laws and means provided by them to persecute any perpetrators.
Primož Lampič, Časnik (Vir: Slovenski čas)
