The Monk and His Message: Undermining the Myth of History

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Now that Marxism is dead (or, as of 1993, appears mortally wounded),
George Woodcock feels confident enough to also sign the death
certificate for determinism. Determinism is the theory held by some
historians that historical events are no more than the smooth unfolding
of a preordained plan, and that certain final ends—be they world free
trade or a workers’ utopia—are inevitable.

Woodcock weaves a wonderful tapestry. In just over 200 pages, he quotes
or encapsulates nearly 300 historical figures or movements. Cree chief
and parliamentarian Elijah Harper finds himself connected in one breath
to Czech president and playwright Vaclav Havel; Hegel and Zoroaster
nudge elbows. Unfortunately, for those who do not believe that history
is already a sealed book, this essay is something of a kick at a straw
determinist. Nowhere does Woodcock prove that pure determinism was ever
embraced by anyone other than one tribe of historians and the occasional
unscrupulous dictator. The author also either forgets—or chooses to
ignore—the one word that often precedes the term determinist:
economic. While he notes that Stalinism first crumbled in Poland after
“fifty years of socialism and no toilet paper,” Woodcock dodges the
economic factor and examines the Polish counter-revolution only as a
struggle of the intellect.

What is left is an elegant, if not always convincing, argument for
world grassroots democracy. The role model Woodcock offers for salvation
is the Dalai Lama, 14th God-King of Tibet and recent recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize. The Dalai Lama, now a simple monk residing in a
modest bungalow in northern India, expounds a philosophy of nonviolent
anarchy. Nice, but can he deliver toilet paper?