Gramsci-A Coward At the End?
Marxist theoretician Antonio Gramsci was one of the most destructive individuals in world history. His work still inspires the gradual disintegration of western society that has been growing steadily worse in recent times.
But it appears, that Gramsci, the hero of millions of socialists and communists worldwide, lacked the courage of his own convictions.
From the Times Online
The Vatican has revealed that Antonio Gramsci, the founder of Italian Communism and an icon of the Left, reverted to Roman Catholicism on his deathbed.
Archbishop Luigi De Magistris, former head of the Apostolic Penitentiary of the Holy See, which deals with confessions, indulgences and the forgiveness of sins, said Gramsci had "died taking the Sacraments". He had asked the nuns attending him in hospital to let him kiss an image of the infant Jesus, Monsignor De Magistris said.
He said rumours that Gramsci had reverted had never until now been confirmed, and the Italian Left had also remained silent on the issue. "But that is how it was" he told Vatican Radio. "Gramsci returned to the faith of his infancy".
Gramsci, who came from Sardinia, won a scholarship in 1911 to study at the University of Turin, a city dominated by the Fiat factories and where trade unions were emerging. He became a Marxist journalist, supporting workers' councils which sprang up in Turin during the strikes of 1919 and 1920.
He played a leading role in founding the Communist Party of Italy or PCI in 1921, became its leader, and after visiting Moscow sought to form a united front of leftist parties against Fascism. He was arrested by the Fascist police in 1926 and put in prison, where his already poor health deteriorated. He died in Rome at the age of 46, shortly after being released, and is buried in the Protestant Cemetery.
He is regarded as one of the most important Marxist thinkers of the 20th century. His thought is crystallised in The Prison Notebooks, in which, among other things, he argued that Capitalism was based on a combination of force and consensus, and that Marxism could only supercede religion if it met peoples spiritual as well as material needs.
But it appears, that Gramsci, the hero of millions of socialists and communists worldwide, lacked the courage of his own convictions.
From the Times Online
The Vatican has revealed that Antonio Gramsci, the founder of Italian Communism and an icon of the Left, reverted to Roman Catholicism on his deathbed.
Archbishop Luigi De Magistris, former head of the Apostolic Penitentiary of the Holy See, which deals with confessions, indulgences and the forgiveness of sins, said Gramsci had "died taking the Sacraments". He had asked the nuns attending him in hospital to let him kiss an image of the infant Jesus, Monsignor De Magistris said.
He said rumours that Gramsci had reverted had never until now been confirmed, and the Italian Left had also remained silent on the issue. "But that is how it was" he told Vatican Radio. "Gramsci returned to the faith of his infancy".
Gramsci, who came from Sardinia, won a scholarship in 1911 to study at the University of Turin, a city dominated by the Fiat factories and where trade unions were emerging. He became a Marxist journalist, supporting workers' councils which sprang up in Turin during the strikes of 1919 and 1920.
He played a leading role in founding the Communist Party of Italy or PCI in 1921, became its leader, and after visiting Moscow sought to form a united front of leftist parties against Fascism. He was arrested by the Fascist police in 1926 and put in prison, where his already poor health deteriorated. He died in Rome at the age of 46, shortly after being released, and is buried in the Protestant Cemetery.
He is regarded as one of the most important Marxist thinkers of the 20th century. His thought is crystallised in The Prison Notebooks, in which, among other things, he argued that Capitalism was based on a combination of force and consensus, and that Marxism could only supercede religion if it met peoples spiritual as well as material needs.
posted by Trevor Loudon at
11/26/2008 09:24:00 PM
8 Comments:
Wasn't he wracked with tuberculosis?
Well Trev, not so long ago you slagged off Matt Robson (perfectly reasonably), saying sarcastically "Matt Robson shows the compassion and respect so common on the left". Now you dub somebody a coward for something silly he did on his deathbed after years of deteriorating health, aggravated by being locked up if fascist prisons.
Bit hypocritical isn't it? I'm no Gramsci fan, but I don't see any reason to call him a coward.
Cheers
Sam Buchanan
Hey Trevor,
Notice when these people are on their death bed, they always start thinking!!!! They realize they are wretched heathens LOL at that point, no more being the tough guy!
More books should be published with those deathbed confessions.
Hugs,
Anne :)
Hanging over the cliff by my well chewed fingernails would have me swearing communism was capitalism or visa versa depending on who was offering the helping hand of salvation.
Having stared death in the face i realised I was leaving behind unfinished business. Call me shallow if you must, but i made ridiculous promises to which ever higher authority was monitoring my life at the time.
I feel terrible that I eventually reneged and went back to my wayward life.
Maybe next time I'll go without a fuss.
Dirk
I don't see how this makes Gramsci a coward?
Yeah, I'll convert on my deathbed too. A bet both ways, you see :)
is the vatican really the most credible source? come on. the roman catholic church has always been an ardent supporter of capitalism and an avowed enemy of marxism. i'm sure they would do anything to discredit one of the most important cultural theorists of the 21st century who is enjoying an upsurge in popularity these days, especially since gramsci was a lifelong member and leader of the PCI. we certainly can't have any marxists making major contributions to social thought now can we?
this whole thing beautifully demonstrates the process of maintaining hegemony that gramsci wrote about.
"Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes not divine but demonic." (Truth & Tolerance, Pope Benedict XVI)Simply another page torn from the textbook of progressive/leftist/Marxist radicals;
they set themselves up as secular saviors of the world. How many more lives must be sacrificed at the altar of these false & empty ideologies before they are acknowledge the truth?
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