critical theory with slavoj zizek: In his writings of 1917, Lenin saves his most acerbic irony for those who engage in a vain search for some kind of guarantee for the revolution, either in the guise of a reified notion of social necessity (“it’s too early for the socialist revolution, the working class isn’t yet mature”), or of a normative, democratic legitimacy (“the majority of the population isn’t on our side, so the revolution would not really be democratic”).