Thinking Like a Terrorist: The Red Brigades

Part V of my eleven-part series on terrorism

For it is not enough to call ourselves the “vanguard,” the advanced contingent; we must act in such a way that all the other contingents recognise and are obliged to admit that we are marching in the vanguard. —Vladimir Lenin, What Is to Be Done? (1902)

One of the many issues facing traditional Marxist philosophy is a real lack of actionable timelines for the communist revolution to take place. Marx and even Engels never offer how the ultimate revolutionary struggle will end and how communism will develop. This led to a good deal of consternation among wannabe revolutionaries during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The best way to understand a traditional Marxist’s view of history is to cue up a staircase in the mind’s eye. This staircase goes ever upward, likely ending with the development of a communist utopia, and each stair is composed of progress and stasis. Change here is gradual, glacial even, with periods of stagnation. And, for enterprising revolutionaries, this is far too slow for their liking.