The social revolution of the 21st century cannot take its poetry
from the past but only from the future. It cannot begin with
itself before it has stripped away all superstition about the
past. The former revolutions required recollections of past
world history in order to smother their own content. The
revolution of the nineteenth century must let the dead bury
their dead in order to arrive at its own content. There the
phrase went beyond the content – here the content goes beyond
the phrase. Bourgeois revolutions, like those of the eighteenth
century, storm more swiftly from success to success, their
dramatic effects outdo each other, men and things seem set in
sparkling diamonds, ecstasy is the order of the day – but they
are short-lived, soon they have reached their zenith, and a long
Katzenjammer [cat’s wail] takes hold of society before it learns
to assimilate the results of its storm-and-stress period
soberly. On the other hand, proletarian revolutions, like those
of the 21st century, constantly critic