Herman Gorter Quotes
But the question is to find and rear leaders that are really one with the masses. This can only be accomplished by the masses, the political parties and the Trade Unions, by means of the most severe struggle, also inwardly.
Gorter, Herman. Open Letter to Comrade Lenin. Wildcat, 1989.
The emphasis was Gorter’s. He was very critical of the top-down, authoritarian type of communism that had evolved in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. The letter was widely published. There were few left wing intellectuals who would take Lenin on at the time but Gorter was one.
What is fascinating about his perception of governance is that if this quotation were viewed in isolation, one might conclude that Khamenei was a populist whose political views do not differ much from those of Thomas Jefferson. But then Islam enters the picture. His belief is that the Koran and the word of the Prophet trumps everything else including the people. So he has little trouble passing laws or enacting regulations that are opposed by the vast majority of Iranians. In a Presidential and parliamentary election, the candidates most popular were disqualified by Khamenei on the grounds that they were not sufficiently consonant with his interpretation of Islam. So in reality his personal view of Islam comes first and secondary to that is the will of the people.
Bureaucracy has always been a problem for communist and capitalist alike.
Republican Party primary elections had become very contentious. The radical right and the Tea Party, though a minority of the party, had the power to destroy almost any Republican candidate’s chances. So those Republican political candidates were forced to pander to the extreme right and then try and backtrack to the center for the general election. As a result, few people believed the statements of Republican office seekers as no one knew what they really believed including members of their own party, Bush, no longer running for any political position, found himself with much more credibility and influence in the party than those who were running for office. The problem of appealing to party extremes was not unique to the Republicans at that time, but the degree and extent was unprecedented accounting for the distrust.
Although he had majority support, he reacted very badly to anyone who challenged him or his party about anything. One of his decisions to transform a park into a shopping center drew crowds of peaceful protesters. He grossly overacted as he believed in a “winner take all” view of democracy. So long as he could bring more followers than the protesters, he was right and they were wrong. This had the effect of polarizing a population that had been a democracy since the 1920s. In his view, dialogue, discussion, and debate are not valuable processes, and minority views can never be correct, but whoever can muster the majority gets to call the shots and make all the laws and decisions, regardless of the views of minorities.
This quotation was documented by an FBI illegal wiretap of King and his associates. The illegal wiretap had been insisted upon by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover who was a racist and somewhat of a paranoid about communists. However, Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy personally approved the illegal wiretap.
Herman Gorter was a Dutch poet and socialist. He was a leading member of the Tachtigers, a highly influential group of Dutch writers who worked together in Amsterdam in the 1880s, centered on De Nieuwe Gids (The New Guide).
