Earlier this week John Harris wrote a gloomy piece about life in Frome (where a by-election is due) arguing that no one was interested in anything much. I don’t want to depress people further but it is easily Googable.
A Fletter in response focused on Lenin’s opposition to such miserabilist politics. That’s not to say that Lenin or the Marxist tradition is one of super optimism either. Marx criticised the Chartist leader Harney for being ‘citizen hurrah hurrah’ cheering on movements that had no real substance.
Rather, staring reality in the face with all the contradictions that can bring
Obscure point alert. It might not have been Harney’s support of particular movements. Harney wrote a poem: Northern Star, 19th September 1846, page 3. The final line of each verse was “All Men are Brethren! hip! hip! Hurrah!”