Demokratia ... has always been a word denoting conflict, a factional term, coined by the higher classes to denote the excessive power (kratos) exercised by the non-property-owning classes (demos).This is of course a fragment from a citation-quote Father Smiff attached above the head of his now-legendary "stop traffic" post.
--Luciano Canfora
Zero in on the translation for kratos: "excessive power". I submit this proposition: all state power must be excessive to the class it points its spears at. A revolutionary state is maybe even the most excessive -- it wants to demolish the life of a class entirely -- at least as that target class knows itself.
All you minarchists-to-anarchists already know this: states are indeed nasty institutions. But I'd argue that we the weebles must be about nasty business, when we finally get a shot at power, even party power.
If the class behind some collapsed ancien regime cries for a return to an open society, or even if it simply wants to horn in on the doings of some recently won national sovereignty (vide Hurricane Hugo) -- then remember: what any out-of-power class naturally finds useful in protection from "their" state becomes -- once they hold power --- a means to the subversion of that power.
There's another Greek word for this. Dialogue? Dialysis? Something like that.
Comments (5)
Need some sort of example of [a thing that an out-of-power class finds useful in protection from "their" state but which becomes, once they hold power, a means to the subversion of that power]. It's all too abstract for me right now.
I take it weebles are us? I thought they were these little toys that wobbled but didn't fall down.
Posted by StO | September 10, 2007 6:54 PM
Posted on September 10, 2007 18:54
"Need some sort of example "
you name a civil liberty or right of person
or on the other hand
a right of property or due process
Posted by op | September 11, 2007 7:13 AM
Posted on September 11, 2007 07:13
Okay... sorry about this. I'll take out-of-power class to be proletariat, and civil liberty to be freedom to organize. Now when the proletariat takes power (hypothetical), freedom to organize becomes a way for them to subvert... someone else's power?
Posted by StO | September 11, 2007 6:47 PM
Posted on September 11, 2007 18:47
open society and its discontents
Posted by op | September 11, 2007 10:43 PM
Posted on September 11, 2007 22:43
sto
in the workers state
by a turn of the tables
" freedom to organize becomes a way ... to subvert... " prole power
i repeat
open society and its discontents
Posted by op | September 12, 2007 10:30 AM
Posted on September 12, 2007 10:30