GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

699 ETHICS AND POLITICS: THE MODERNS
exploited can no more express the real will of the exploiters
thin the existing democracy of die exploiters expresses
the real win of the exploited*
Thus, before the revolutionary period pure democracy
is found to be inoperative, and during the revolutionary
period it is declared to be impracticable.
tion is accomplished, it is upon
Until the revolu-
the militant resolution and
energy of will of the few, rather than upon the possibility
of obtaining universal content) that communists rely in
the struggle against Capitalism,
COMMUNISM AS THE HOPE OF CIVILIZATION. To many
this may seem a somewhat gloomy outlook. Communists
admittedly differ from most other socialists in believing
that the struggle with Capitalism is inevitable, and will
be both violent and protracted. They would not, however,
agree that theirs is a policy of despair. They hold, on the
contrary, that revolutionary Socialism is the only source
ofhope in an otherwise bankrupt world. Unless Capitalism
is destroyed, its struggles will, they insist, rapidly shatter
civilization. War will succeed war, pestilence will succeed
famine, until society goes down beneath the destructiveness
of die forces of unchecked Capitalism. Each fresh
war destroys all the petty gains that the forces of peaceful
Socialism and Liberalism have won. These are swept
aside in moments of danger, and reaction nnkf*J and
their place. If, then, the world is to be
saved from the evils of a capitalist civilization which has
outlived its function in the evolution of society, salvation
can come only from a strong and resolute revolutionary
party, with the determination to overthrow Capitalism
when the moment arrives, and die knowledge of how to
replace it*
(2) The Post-Revolutionary Sttge
During the revolutionary period the State persists as
the organ for carrying out the will of the triumphant
working class. But once the bowgtmtU is finally liquidated