Lenin is said to have told Communists that a good part of their work is to “patiently explain” their position to the masses. Warning against the disappointment that comes when an enthusiastic hack announces the party truth and it is not universally acclaimed as a great leap forward, it has a useful insulating effect against knock backs. On the surface the phrase has two great virtues.
First patience. If at first you don’t succeed try, try, try again is a good motto for people who rarely succeed.
Secondly, emphasising persuasion rather than coercion. It’s worth bearing in mind that a small revolutionary group cannot force a trade union a thousand times its size to do anything, except through persuasion. Why not make a virtue out of a necessity?
Sadly in this context both of these virtues are, in fact, vices.
The little engine that couldn’t
While giving up after trying something once is not a good habit, if you keep failing it is time for a little self-examination. This phrase specifically says that you need patience because of *their* failure to understand rather than *your* failure to deploy persuasive arguments.
If the activist cannot persuade his workmates to vote for a strike, or the Central Committee can’t get the activists to properly implement the party line then the task is to continue “patiently explaining”. The possibility that a strike now might be a stupid idea or the party line could be impractical is not part of the equation.
While “scientific socialism” should be about evidence based policy and re-examining ideas and tactics when they do not work you will rarely hear a “Leninist” pronounce on the need to re-examine their approach, if it’s not working it’s probably because they haven’t lectured you enough on the subject.
Ultimately “patiently explain” means that you never stop talking no matter how little traction your ideas are having.
A comfort blanket quote
“Patiently explaining” means elevating yourself to the position of teacher without having earned the privilege. We’re not talking about people who’ve paid to be on your course but unsuspecting workmates and friends who are polite enough to listen without rolling around on the floor screaming “please stop talking!”. This approach means leaving no space for developing new ideas, for building relationships, for falling in love or for learning together through doing.
When a self-identifying revolutionary says “we need to learn the lessons of [insert recent event]” they mean “I think [insert recent event] is a good illustration of exactly the same thing I always bang on about.” Well adjusted people change their minds reasonably often, revolutionaries just keep patiently explaining. The very fact that there is a set phrase for this is a case in point.
It takes the activist as a finished product who seeks to replicate herself onto the next generation. This is no ordinary patience, this is patience on a world historical level – we’re to continue our patient explanations of ideas from a different age that are represented as unchanged truths despite the fact that modern day Leninists do very little that you could meaningfully compare to the historical Lenin.
It elevates the things that some guy once said into an ossified holy scripture. Don’t reconsider, just keep patiently explaining.