Red Terror
05-29-2018, 03:35 PM
The bourgeoisie, always blindly empirical, were unable to see the explosive accumulation of subterranean discontent that was quietly gathering force. They were congratulating themselves that no revolution had taken place. Once they had recovered from the initial shock of the crisis of 2008, for the bankers and capitalists it was “business as usual” Like a drunken man dancing on the edge of a precipice, they carried on with the merry carnival of money-making, which acquired an even more feverish pace while the conditions of the masses went from bad to worse.
Leon Trotsky explained what he called the molecular process of revolution. In the History of the Russian Revolution he points out that, what determines the [revolutionary] consciousness of the masses is not just the economic crisis, but rather the accumulation of discontent built up over the whole previous period. The discontent of the masses accumulates unnoticed until it finally reaches that critical point when quantity is transformed into quality.
https://www.socialist.net/2018-a-year-of-capitalist-crisis-part-three.htm
To use an example from natural science again, let us imagine the heating of water. You can actually measure ("quantify"), in terms of degrees of temperature, the change that takes place in the water as you add heat to it. From, let us say, 10 degrees centigrade (which is normal tap water) to about 98 degrees centigrade, the change will remain quantitative; i.e., the water will remain water, although it is getting warmer.
But then comes a point where the change in the water becomes qualitative, and the water turns into steam. You can no longer describe the change in the water as it is heated from 98 degrees to 102 degrees in purely quantitative terms. We have to say that a qualitative change (water into steam) has come about as a result of an accumulation of quantitative change (adding more and more heat).
https://www.marxist.com/pickard-dialectical-materialism.htm
Pre-capitalist systems (slavery, feudalism, etc.) defended violently against capitalism: civil wars (U.K. in 1640, US in 1861-65, France in 1789-1794), revolutions (France 1789; Europe 1848, and global anti-colonialism (last century). Now capitalism defends violently (troops, drones,) everywhere.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1939/12/abc.htm
Leon Trotsky explained what he called the molecular process of revolution. In the History of the Russian Revolution he points out that, what determines the [revolutionary] consciousness of the masses is not just the economic crisis, but rather the accumulation of discontent built up over the whole previous period. The discontent of the masses accumulates unnoticed until it finally reaches that critical point when quantity is transformed into quality.
https://www.socialist.net/2018-a-year-of-capitalist-crisis-part-three.htm
To use an example from natural science again, let us imagine the heating of water. You can actually measure ("quantify"), in terms of degrees of temperature, the change that takes place in the water as you add heat to it. From, let us say, 10 degrees centigrade (which is normal tap water) to about 98 degrees centigrade, the change will remain quantitative; i.e., the water will remain water, although it is getting warmer.
But then comes a point where the change in the water becomes qualitative, and the water turns into steam. You can no longer describe the change in the water as it is heated from 98 degrees to 102 degrees in purely quantitative terms. We have to say that a qualitative change (water into steam) has come about as a result of an accumulation of quantitative change (adding more and more heat).
https://www.marxist.com/pickard-dialectical-materialism.htm
Pre-capitalist systems (slavery, feudalism, etc.) defended violently against capitalism: civil wars (U.K. in 1640, US in 1861-65, France in 1789-1794), revolutions (France 1789; Europe 1848, and global anti-colonialism (last century). Now capitalism defends violently (troops, drones,) everywhere.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1939/12/abc.htm