The Verbal Revolution

How the Prague Spring broke world communism's main spring.

by Christopher Hitchens - August 25th, 2008 - Slate

The Ogre does what ogres can,
Deeds quite impossible for Man,
But one prize is beyond his reach,
The Ogre cannot master Speech.
About a subjugated plain,
Among its desperate and slain,
The Ogre stalks with hands on hips
While drivel gushes from his lips.

Christopher Hitchens refers to W.H. Auden, author of the eight line poem above, as "the greatest English-language poet of the 20th century." Not being a reader of poetry, I can only surmise that someone of Hitchens' ability would at the least be speaking of a very accomplished poet.

He uses this poem for a lesson on something that was a powerful time in 20th century history, what has become known as the Prague Spring. It was a time during which the Russian-dominated Soviet Union, and its puppets known as the Warsaw Pact, invaded Czechoslovakia. The importance of this time is reflected in the current invasion of the two Georgian provinces by the remnant of the Soviet Union known as Russia.

Those who are like Hitchens, followers of Marxist thought, saw the Prague Spring as monumental for its fracturing of the unity of socialist thought they had previously proclaimed. Recently that unity has been re-established as one of the premises of the global socialist movement, based strongly on Marxist ideology, which has backed Barack Obama with such passion.

The question that is stressing this movement currently is the impact for Obama of the Georgian invasion. It reminds the world that the global socialist movement has never been free of nationalist impulses from the strongest members of the movement. Nor has unity ever been as solid as it is sometimes perceived. Russia is still the strongest member. The Georgian invasion is a big deal. What is most important is how global socialists view its imnpact on unity.

Hitchens does not answer that question but implies some really good questions of his own with his concluding paragraph.

Now, overt Russian imperialism is back, after a very short absence from the scene, and it is no more amiable or benign from the many toxic resentments it acquired during its period of decline and impotence and eclipse. Its propaganda is no longer bureaucratic and collectivist and prosaic; it has been thickened and enriched by patriotic songs, old poems and ballads, and the hymns and incantations of priests. It is now we, sunk in the banalities of democratic discourse, who stammer to find an apt form of words in which to defend and justify ourselves and our once-again menaced friends to the east.

Hitchens is (as always) a great read. The Prague Spring still has lessons for us as we deal with the global socialist movement's desire to end free enterprise . . . and we had best learn them if we want to retain the basis for our own amazing economic success.