The books of Robert Conquest: first and foremost his masterpiece, one of the most important books of the 20th century: The Great Terror: A Reassessment
, but also Reflections on a Ravaged Century
, The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine
, The Dragons Of Expectation: Reality And Delusion In The Course Of History
, Stalin and the Kirov Murder
. Robert Conquest is one of my heroes. I have written a lot about him. Here’s the post I wrote when he died. Conquest was a very important part of my political education, along with other “apostates” like George Orwell, Rebecca West and Arthur Koestler. I have no political “ideology.” Not really. I distrust ideology. I distrust Orthodoxy. I distrust GROUPS. I’m great at parties! If I had a political “ideology” it would be something along the lines of the Hippocratic Oath, I guess. But the one constant in my sparse personal political system is that Man should never be trusted with power. Neither should Woman. Either. Neither should be trusted with power. Ever. I mean, that’s basically it. Let the chips fall where they may, and we will spend our lives making messes and then cleaning them up, but that’s the only place to start. Don’t trust ANYONE with the keys to the castle. No one is immune to corruptibility. And those who present as “incorruptible” are often the WORST. Keep your wits about you. Idolize no one. Distrust anyone who speaks of Utopias, especially political Utopias. Conquest is one of the ones who taught me that.
Zlatko Dizdarevic’s Sarajevo: A War Journal
– one of the most harrowing first-hand accounts of war I have ever read. An absolute must-read.
By Michael Dobbs: One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War
and Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire
. He’s a terrific writer. I particularly love the second book.
Jason Elliot’s gorgeous An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan
, a tender and vividly written travelogue of his years Afghanistan (pre-9/11.) He loved the country so much he went back again and again. The book came out a couple months before September 11th, and became a surprise bestseller due to world events. I’ve been meaning to re-read it. There’s also his book Mirrors of the Unseen: Journeys in Iran
, which I have not read yet. He’s such a beautiful writer.
/I have no political “ideology.” Not really. I distrust ideology. I distrust Orthodoxy. I distrust GROUPS./
Yup, ditto. Ideology and political parties are for people who can’t think and who want politics to be like sports: pick your team and then follow and curse and cheer them no matter what, just because, at the behest of any logic or sense or evidence. This has never made any sense to me. Like I can’t make my brain do this even if I wanted to. And people in groups? Dear god. And I know because I am, shall we say, a lone wolf, ETC., and oh do I stick out like a sore thumb, in one way or another. The dynamic of people in groups is so fucked, it brings out things that, while they may have been useful to our ancestors, are just fucking weird in the current context of modern (for lack of a better word) life.
/But the one constant in my sparse personal political system is that Man should never be trusted with power. Neither should Woman. Either. Neither should be trusted with power. Ever. I mean, that’s basically it. Let the chips fall where they may, and we will spend our lives making messes and then cleaning them up, but that’s the only place to start. Don’t trust ANYONE with the keys to the castle. No one is immune to corruptibility. And those who present as “incorruptible” are often the WORST. Keep your wits about you. Idolize no one. Distrust anyone who speaks of Utopias, especially political Utopias. Conquest is one of the ones who taught me that./
EXACTLY. So well put. I guess I REALLY need to read this guy. 2018 is gonna be the year. Thanks, Sheila.
The great thing about Robert Conquest is that there’s so much of him! The Great Terror is the place to start. I think you’ll love him, Brooke!
// The dynamic of people in groups is so fucked, it brings out things that, while they may have been useful to our ancestors, are just fucking weird in the current context of modern (for lack of a better word) life. //
I know. And social media makes it even more toxic.
Groups can be wonderful. You find your tribe of people who love knitting or reading or horror movies or classic cars … and it’s such a relief: you’ve found your people!!
But then there’s the other kinds of groups … and how groups behave. Crowd mentalities. Mob mentalities. The kinds of groups Elias Canetti broke down exhaustively in Crowds and Power … It’s a struggle to think for yourself, especially when there’s propaganda involved – OR when you appear to be the only person who thinks a certain way, etc.
Honestly, people like Conquest – or Orwell – or R. West – just help me keep my bearings, keep my wits about me. I still may be getting everything wrong, but at least I’m doing my best to interpret events on my own, not just following a political party’s platform to the letter.
You say here:
But these are two separate things. They should not be conflated.
An ideology is a model for how some aspect of human nature operates. Within its proper domain, it might well be highly useful: i.e., its predictions might be more accurate than those of other ideologies applied to that domain. Orthodoxy is a decision by someone to accept the prescriptions and proscriptions of some doctrine in whole and in part and to refuse to question them. But the refusal to question elevates the doctrine to a faith – and an ideology, like a scientific theory, loses the confidence (and much of the interest) of rational minds at that point.
Continuing on, you say:
If you’re serious about this and mean this as it is — i.e., if you assert that this model is applicable to human societies and functions better than others in that domain — you have asserted your confidence, though perhaps your orthodoxy, in an ideology. It’s called anarchism.
You see, we can’t really avoid ideologies. They’re the product of goal selection plus rational thought, tempered by the gathering of available evidence. It’s when we cease to look critically at them and try to find better ones that trouble really starts. But this is far too large a subject for a comment at anyone’s blog.
// They should not be conflated. //
Watch me.
and let me guess. You’re a man.
I glanced at your site and can see why you have felt “moved” to respond to this post in your first comment on my site. We all have blind spots, in particular when it comes to ideology. I’ve been writing here a long time – and posts a/b Conquest/fascism/Stalin/tyranny always bring people out of the woodwork, for good or ill. Using condescending tones like the one you used. It’s weird – there’s something kneejerk about it – Christopher Hitchens understood this – it’s what he wrote about in his book on Orwell.
So you’re in good – albeit boring – company.
Hm. I was prepared to respect you before that. Oh, well.
Dude, like I care.
You’ve made a terrible first impression.
This comment thread has been brought to you from the year 2005!
My 19-year-old self says hi.