Marx is a revolutionary
So is every artiste!
Senior Journalist Jayatilleke de Silva has translated Karl Marx's Das
Kapital into Sinhala. Quite a big thing, indeed! I have read the English
version, but in chunks. Wish I could read the whole thing, but I have a
priority: finish off Thripitaka first.
The launch was a simple event with only one major speech by Professor
Desmond Mallikaarachchi. It dragged on for two hours. Never mind that,
his speech was witty and inspirational, I liked it. He had to talk about
relevance of Marx in today's context. He paused, questioned the audience
and went on, but did not drone on.
Professor Mallikaara-chchi said Marx is not a philosopher or
anything, but a revolutionary. Well, that intrigued me. Listening to him
go ahead with this ideology, my memories seeped into Parakrama
Kodituwakku's post-word to his own Rashmi.
Rashmi is a collection of poetry based on Buddhist literature. Many
do not find these poetry intellectual. Spiritual poetry should not
always be intellectual, because intellectual status could change any
moment. A spiritual moment lasts for ever. Parkrama's post-word is an
answer to Marxists who do not find any intellectual taste in Rashmi.
Karl Marx being a revolutionary and spirituality lasting for ever,
poles apart - go figure? Hang on, I try to spell this out.
Marxists are not fond of religious literature, because Marx detested
it. But he did not detest it straight away. It was kind of
beat-about-the-bush, if Marxists forgive me. I reproduce a part from his
'Contribution to the Critique of Hegel s Philosophy of Law' (1844):
"Religion is the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has
either not yet found himself or has already lost himself again. But man
is no abstract being encamped outside the world. "Man is the world of
man, the state and society. This state, this society, produce religion,
an inverted world-conciousness, because they are an inverted world.
Religion is the general theory of that world, its encyclopaedic
compendium, its logic in a popular form, its spiritualistic point d
honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, its
universal source of consolation and justification. It is the fantastic
realisation of the human essence because the human essence has no true
reality. The struggle against religion is therefore indirectly a fight
against the world of which religion is the spiritual aroma.
Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real
distress, and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of
the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the soul
of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."
Kodituwakku describes how Marx gradually changed his ideals about
religion towards later stages in life. After he checked Das Kapital
proof, Marx would take his daughter to the church to listen to carols.
In her biography on Marx, Eleanor describes how her father enjoyed
listening to religious songs.
That is why I do not fully agree with Professor Mallikaarachchi when
he says Marx was the greatest human being on this earth. I would rather
accept that Marx was a great revolutionary, yet whose ideas changed over
time.
Marx was definitely seeing his reputation on the rise, but he
couldn't get a chance to study Buddhism thoroughly, says Parakrama. His
ideals would have changed a great deal, if it was just otherwise. Many
Marxists do not like to see this reality.
A revolution doesn't mean rallying to topple a government, and form a
worse one, like in 'Animal Farm' - oh, I need to read it once again! A
sensitive artiste knows how to be rightly influenced from the positive
feature of his/her religion. That plus every catastrophe produces
revolutionary artistes. Every single masterpiece in world literature has
a religious layer more or less.
It's time Marxist and Buddhist hardliners drew curtains to their
silly face-offs. They who triumph their own mindsets, have triumphed the
whole world, said the Buddha. Our religious sources are out there
waiting for the creative deconstruction. If only our artistes can
embrace these sources, leaving 'intellectual' nonsense aside!
Then every artiste is a revolutionary. Now who is up for that?
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