\n\u201c[…]the Reign of Terror. We think of this as the reign of people who inspire terror; on the contrary, it is the reign of people who are themselves terrified. Terror consists mostly of useless cruelties perpetrated by frightened people in order to reassure themselves.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nSo says Engels to Marx<\/a> in 1870. He was talking about the French Revolution and its aftermath, but he might as well have been looking through a time-warp at Josef Stalin. Rather than the \u201cstrength\u201d that his devotees imagine, Stalin offered the world nothing but weakness: constantly jumping at imaginary threats, alienating potential allies, and dividing the working class against itself. If the Soviet Union accomplished anything, it was because extraordinarily brave people kept working in spite of him. Stalinism is nationalistic, homophobic, sexist, and often downright stupid<\/em>; today, it\u2019s wholly backward-looking, seeking to restore the imagined glories of 1945 rather than create something new. A \u201cstrong\u201d movement does not need to arrest poets for using a different style to the approved one. For anyone skeptical of the police or prisons, the idea that it even could <\/em>is monstrous. Thankfully, it\u2019s still fairly rare to find someone who idolizes the man himself, but aspects of the Stalinist idea keep popping up\u2014in defenses of dictators like Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad as opponents of \u201cimperialism,\u201d in disdain for feminism and LGBTQ rights as distractions, and in the attitude that anything is justified if it leads to power. All of this is a poisonous dead end for the left, and the question \u201chow can we be sure you won\u2019t create another Stalin?\u201d is a serious one for future parties and movements to address. The working people of the world have no need for a Man of Steel; they\u2019re already more than capable of leading themselves. <\/p>\n