Sample page, which is eerily familiar, given the events of the past few days:
Posted on 08/15/2008 6:20:45 AM PDT by reaganaut1
I like to pick up old textbooks from the 1950s and 1960s at yard sales. They are less politically correct. I recently bought a set of children's encylopedias published in 1966. The entry on "communism" was so devastating that I couldn't help chuckling -- I can't imagine it being published today in a reference work.
If anyone is interested, I can type in a few paragraphs from the article on communism. All of it is still true.
Absolutely!
I would enjoy reading what you have time to type out if it’s not too much trouble.
I love the old textbooks and encyclopedias too. The old World Books have entries on the Apostles, on many Christian topics, and their American history is superb, too. You can even read about ‘Indians’ and Davy Crockett and other forbidden notions.
For $10.
Seconded.
Go ahead. There used to be a tv show called I Led 3 Lives. It was about a US agent who’d infiltrated a Communist cell operating in America. It was based on a real man’s experiences (and his book).
I’ve only seen a few episodes.
One had a commrade’s daughter spend the weekend with the agent’s family. The family knew what daddy did and weren’t supposed to let on. Well the commie kid pushed all sorts of PC talking points as the focus of all discussions of America history. I think this one was called Little Red Schoolhouse.
Another episode had farmers in an uproar at the government to suspend nuclear testing (at the proding of Soviet agents) because it was “affecting the climate” and ruining the growing seasoon. In the episode the USSR was really trying behind the scenes to catch up the US nuclear program and needed us to halt testing awhile...
These were from 1962. Kennedy era. Post McCarthey.
Also the things that people laughed about in the 1980s when they looked at Jack Webb as Rod Serling in Red Nightmare (a man wakes up to find his whole town has gone Commie) are coming to pass.
The “middle ground” in America has surged Left but we aren’t supposed to have noticed.
come on, this isn’t 1966 anymore. Scan the passage and post it.
Yes, I drooled at the mouth when I got my Step Grandfather’s textbooks from the sixties. Public Administration(Ohio State) and Civil Engineering(U of Texas).
Want to really understand Communism? You should read “A Study of Communism” by J. Edgar Hoover, published in 1962. Used copies available on Amazon. It’s a classic that everyone should read. Another valuable source of information is old issues of Readers Digest — anti-Communist articles were a staple of that publication for decades, which I read from from the 1960’s through the 1980’s. Younger people today have no idea what it’s all about.
Can’t wait to read it - post away!
By all means post a few paragraphs about Communism. It would be very interesting to make the comparison.
I see you are correct:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045397/usercomments
1953-1956. And it was in color.
Self-ping for later.
Sample page, which is eerily familiar, given the events of the past few days:
Communism
Communism is a form of government. Once, long ago, a communistic community was one in which all the people owned everything together, and no one had any private property except perhaps his clothes and a few personal possessions. This is not what is meant by the communism you hear today. Modern communism is a combination of two other forms of government, socialism and fascism.
In communism as in socialism, the state (that is, the government) owns all property that can be used to make a profit. It owns the farms, factories, mines, railroads, stores, houses, telephone and gas and electric light companies, and nearly everything else. But it is not the people who own these, it is the state. In communism as fascism, the government is controlled by one political party (which in a communistic country is the Communist Party). The head of the party is also the head of the country. He is a dictator who has absolute power over everyone. No one is allowed to start an opposition political party. The people vote, but that is a joke, because there is only one list of candidates. No one is allowed to run against the Communist Party's candidates, as Republicans and Democrats do against each other in the United States. Anyone who criticizes the government may be killed or put in jail. Newspapers may print only what the government tells them to. The leaders of the party are very rich, with mansions and many servants and fine food, even when most of the people of the country are starving; they are as powerful as kings and noblemen were, many years ago. But the other people have no freedom. A person is not allowed to leve the country, to move from one city to another, or change jobs, without permission. If he tries to do any of these things, or if he stays home from work without a doctor's certificate saying he is sick, or makes many mistakes in his work, he will probably be arrested or imprisoned without a trial.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is a communistic country. That is the country we usually speak of Russia, because Russia is the largest part of it. All commmunist countries were forced or helped by Russia to become communistic. In the other communist countries of Europe -- Poland, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Hungary, Albania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia -- Russia used armed aggression of the threat of it to drive out governments elected by the people and put in communist bosses. Aided by Russian arms and mean, a few communists in China, North Korea, North Vietnam, and Cuba were able to control large armies composed chiefly of men who are not communists, and so bring all these countries under the control of a Communist Party that supports a "party line" favorable to Russia. (China, Yugoslavia, and Albania are no longer so friendly to Russia).
What Makes People Communists?
Nearly everyone dislikes communism in the United States, and in Canada and other countries where men are free and have fought many times to win and keep their freedom. But there are some countries where the governments are democratic and yet there are many communists; and even in the United States and other freedom-loving countries there are some communists. Why is this? The leaders of a Communist Party, of course, want to overthrow the democratic governments so that they can be the rich and powerful bosses of the country. It is human to enjoy power.
Some countries are very poor and workingmen are not paid enough to live comfortably. They want a change of government because they hope they will be better off under a communist government. Actually they would be much worse off; but they do not know this, and their feeling is, "What have I got to lose?"
In free and prosperous countries a communist is often suffering from a sort of mental illness. He may be so jealous of rich people that he wants a revolution in which they will be killed. Or he may be rich himself, and suffering from what psychologists call a "guilt complex": He feels it is somehow wrong for him to be rich when others are poor, and it helps his conscience to say he is in favor of a government where no one is rich. If only he knew, the difference between rich and poor people is much greater in communist countries than in democratic ones.
The New Communism
So in 1917, for the first time in history, a big country had a communist government. Lenin was the head of the government. At first, it is possible that he really wanted to help the people. But he and the other communists persuaded themselves that they had to murder their enemies ruthlessly "for the good of the working class". Soon Lenin learned that enjoyed having such power. He became a worse tyrant than the czars.
This has been true of every Communist since. Joseph Stalin, who chased out Trotsky and seized power in Russia when Lenin died, and who remained the dictator until he died in 1953, had millions of people murdered and millions more sent as slave workers to prison camps, mines, and factories. He also liked to be treated as a god.
In 1919, with Lenin in power, the Russians fromed the "Third International,", which they called the Comintern (Communist International). The Comintern tried to help other Communist Parties in all countries to start revolutions against their governments. In 1943, Stalin pretended to drop the Comintern, so that other countries would help in World War II, but after World War II he started another organization, called the Cominform (Communist Information Bureau) to do the same work.
For many years, communists all over the world obeyed the orders that came from Moscow, the Soviet capital, and supported all of Russia's acts of aggression and cruelty against its own people and against weak foreign countries. In the 1960s, Red China began to criticize Russia for not being communistic enough -- because Russia often compromises with capitalistic nations -- so now many commnists in Europe and Asia feel free to criticize Russia. But all communists side with communistic countries against capitalist countries -- even against their own countries. This is called "following the party line." Many persons who pretend not to be communists follow the party line. Others, called "fellow travelers," are not members of the Communist Party but usually help the communists to accomplish what they are trying to do. ...
In the United States, the Communist Party never had many members, so it did not have much poltical power. However, the American communists got control of several important labor unions. After World War II they were voted out of office in nearly all these unions, and some of the communist leaders were convicted of trying to overthrow the United States government and were put in jail. In 1954, the United States Congress passed a law that denied the Communist Party recognition as a political party and that required members of the Communist Party to register as agents of a foreign country (the U.S.S.R.).
The Aims of Communism
The great communist writers -- Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin -- have written that it is foolish to be honorable in dealing with other countries. Their own words make it clear that they want to destroy the governments of other countries, by starting wars if necessary, and many times it has been shown that they keep spies and plan sabotage in free countries throughout the world. On ten different occasions communist Russia has used force to take territory or to seize control over a small, weak nation.
To protect themselves against the danger of an attack from Russia, several European and American nations formed NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, about which there is a separate article) and in 1954 Yugoslavia, Greece, and Turkey made a treaty to fight together if any of them were attacked, and nine free countries of easter Asia made a similar treaty, the Southeast Asia Treaty. (See also the articles on Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Capitalism, and Socialism.)
Compare this article with that from encylopedia probably most used today, the Wikipedia, which begins "Communism is a socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership of the means of production and property in general." Egalitarian, classless, and stateless?
In contrast, the Wiki definition you posted almost makes communism sound good. Not a single hint of negativity in its description...
Thanks again! Good stuff.
Wow! You’re right. That is “eerily familiar.” Looks like a modern day comic strip of the events unfolding in Georgia. Thanks for sharing. Very interesting.
Add one more to The Club of Those Who Collect Older History Books (pre-revisionary).
It's good to know that there are many being saved!
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