0745685749 enemies democracy

40 The Inner Enemies of Democracy
submitted to examination, rather than on solid facts:
as the Communist Manifesto puts it: ‘The theoretical
conclusions of the Communists are in no way based
on ideas or principles that have been invented, or discovered,
by this or that would-be universal reformer.
They merely express, in general terms, actual relations
springing from an existing class struggle.’ 14 A phrase of
Lenin, which was engraved on the monument to Marx
in the centre of Moscow, puts it even better: ‘Marxism
is all-powerful because it is true.’ It was because of this
assumption that Marx and Engels would also be intolerant
of any divergent opinion: it would be attacked not
only as politically inappropriate, but as false and therefore
not worthy of consideration.
The goal aimed at by Marxist ‘science’ is the disappearance
of any differences between human groups,
as each difference is perceived as a source of conflict,
and ultimately a death struggle. This is why we need
to abolish private property and place all instruments of
production in the hands of the state. Those who resist
will be removed, including the bourgeoisie, whose interests
go in the opposite direction. ‘The existence of the
bourgeoisie is no longer compatible with society.’ So we
must engage in the ‘abolition’ of the bourgeois propertyowner:
‘This person must indeed be swept out of the way
and made impossible.’ The precise means of suppression
are not detailed, but the Manifesto admits that ‘despotic
inroads’ will be required, as the desired ends can
be achieved ‘only through the forcible overthrow of all
existing social conditions’. 15 The physical elimination of
the bourgeoisie as a class is already on the agenda. Either
way, the transformation of society as envisaged by the
Manifesto is so radical – the abolition of private property
and the disappearance of classes – that it is inconceivable
it might be achieved without bloodshed.
At first sight, therefore, we are here a world away
from Pelagian, revolutionary voluntarism, since human