Food for Thought

[Maggie_T]

So I'm excercizing on my eliptical, watching Dr. Zhivago (one of my all-time favorite oldies) on my portable DVD player.

Bear with me for a moment while I write a bit of history for the younger generation (and victims of modern public education). The 1964 film Dr. Zhivago is based on the novel of the same name by Nobel Prize winner, Boris Pasternak.

The novel - an epic - is a tragedy whose events span the last period of Czarist Russia and the early days of the Soviet Union.

Anyway, Zhivago's brother - a revolutionary - enlists in the army during WWI. This has nothing to do with patriotism, and everything to do with orders from the party, which was not called Communist Party yet as there were innumerable flavors of communism in the early days: reds, whites, bolscheviks, etc.

What called my attention were Zhivago's brother's reason for enlisting. He says this

"The whole of Europe was praying to the same God for victory over the Germans. My task - the party's task - was to organize defeat. From defeat would spring the revolution. And the revolution would be victory for us (leftist revolutionaries). The party was interested in recruiting young men from the army for our cause ... when their boots wore out, they would be ready to listen."

"The party's task was to organize defeat." Now doesn't that sound familiar? It made me stop and think. One could say that the democrat party nowadays has the same task as the Russian revolutionary party had in WWI. They are certainly organizing defeat in Iraq.

What do you think?

[DoctorDoom]

It sounds like the RATs have seen the film. They own defeat in our time.

[DesertFox]

Yeah, Mags, that is among the great flicks of all time. I remarked on what you're talking about some 35 years ago.

It was true in 1917, true in 1949, true in 1959 and true today: Communists want every other system to fail and bend all their efforts to sabotaging any other system so that it will fail. They don't care how many get hurt or get dead in the process, and they don't care that their own system is the biggest failure in all history, even bigger than Nazism.

Two kinds of people are bona fide Communists: Those like Whittaker Chambers and David Horowitz who are too honest to stay Communist; and those who are so full of venom that they will balk at nothing to seize power and enforce misery on everyone else. The third kind, exemplified by today's liberals, aren't bona fide anything; they're stuck in early adolescence and can't get out.

[Beowulf]

Very good point, Maggie. Disturbing, but excellent.

[Maggie_T]

Thank you brother Beo.



Yeah, Mags, that is among the great flicks of all time. I remarked on what you're talking about some 35 years ago.

It was true in 1917, true in 1949, true in 1959 and true today: Communists want every other system to fail and bend all their efforts to sabotaging any other system so that it will fail. They don't care how many get hurt or get dead in the process, and they don't care that their own system is the biggest failure in all history, even bigger than Nazism.

Two kinds of people are bona fide Communists: Those like Whittaker Chambers and David Horowitz who are too honest to stay Communist; and those who are so full of venom that they will balk at nothing to seize power and enforce misery on everyone else. The third kind, exemplified by today's liberals, aren't bona fide anything; they're stuck in early adolescence and can't get out.


Fox, I agree. I know that the "sophisticates" will pooh-pooh my fears and tell me that "times have changed," or "modern socialism is not like communism." Bull. Socialism is communism's younger sibling. And like communism, it feeds on envy, hatred, and a sense of entitlement that springs from covetousness. And those things are timeless.

Do you guys think there is a possibility that old-fashioned communism could resurge? I mean, the whole of Europe is pretty much socialist. And don't even start me on South America and the rest of the world.

And, if so, could it spread to America?

[DesertFox]

It never went away. It never will. Socialism is the simplest form of rule -- sheer force. Autocracy. Kingship. Dictatorship. One-man rule.

Its simplicity appeals to people who want to be boss. You win arguments by bashing heads and shooting people. You stay in power by intimidation. Terror. Silencing and killing off opposition.

"Sophisticates," of course, pooh pooh all that. They only want what's best for everybody, and they know what's best for everybody.

Spread to America? It's always been here, but our system kept it in check. Now the system has been so undermined that we're at a tipping point where things could go either way -- our Constitutional system isn't defeated yet but it could be.

The danger is that so many are so unaware of just how good we've had it. With no basis for comparison it's easy to think all systems pretty-much the same.

[Jester21]

Autocracy. Kingship. Dictatorship. One-man rule.

"Unitary Executive".....sound familiar?

[The_Elucidator]

"Unitary Executive".....sound familiar?

Sure does! That's what this country will get if Hitlery is fraudulently elected! If you are referring to W then you need to stay away from footballs!