Remembering Communism

Acton Institute ^ | November 17, 2004 | Samuel Gregg

[Tailgunner Joe]

BERLIN - A rebuilt section of the Berlin Wall with a field of crosses as a memorial to those killed while trying to escape to the West between 1961 and 1989 has fuelled an angry controversy in the German capital.

The 120-metre wall, constructed out of original segments, has been erected at the legendary Checkpoint Charlie where American and Soviet tanks once faced off muzzle-to-muzzle at the height of the Cold War.

Behind the wall are 1,065 wooden crosses in what would have been the death strip. Standing tightly packed on top of white gravel, each of the three-metre-high crosses bears the name of a victim.

"Everyone must know what price we paid for freedom," said Alexandra Hildebrandt, head of the Berlin Wall Museum at Checkpoint Charlie, who organised both the rebuilt wall and crosses. - LINK

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Make no memorials for Communism. It is alive and well and is now called The Democrat Party of the United States of America. Make no mistake about it. They know what they are and revel in it.

[Ptarmigan]

The collapse of East Germany was the best thing to happen. How about 100 million crosses? Communism thankfully never took off in Indonesia, South Korea, Singapore, Phillippines, Chile, Argentina, etc.

[SpaceBar]

The flawed socioeconomic system that puts The State above God and family is alive and well.

[shubi]

I am surprised they were allowed to use crosses.

[PeterFinn]

Great post. I hope someone posts this over on DU for the DUmmies to see what nightmares their dreams have wrought upon humanity.

[Ptarmigan]

Come to think of it, what government is responsible for killing the most commies?

[SpaceBar]

"what government is responsible for killing the most commies?

If I'm not mistaken, that dubious honor belongs to the People's Republic of China.

[Ptarmigan]

How ironic. Commies killing each other. Stalin is said to kill more commies then what happened in Indonesia, Chile, South Korea, Argentina, etc.

[gedeon3]

Communism is not dead at all; it's alive and well all over the world, including here.

[Lunkhead_01]

Communism is not dead and buried yet. If you doubt that, come here to the Communistwealth of Massghanistan. We are governed by a one-party General Court (legislature) whose members claim to be Democrats but who are really Marxist-Leninists.

A culture of death, by contrast, carries the seeds of its self-destruction.

I certainly hope so. The culture of death headed up by John F'ing Kerry and Breckgirl carries its seeds of self-destruction. We need to help germinate those seeds.

[dhs12345]

Good link to deaths due to Communism ~ 60 million between Stalin and Mao. More than all during WWII. Some claim that deaths under Mao are closer to 100 million.

http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/atrox.htm


Maybe John Lennon was a fool for believing in Communism and Mao after all.

[vpintheak]

What kind of controversy could that possibly stir up? People are really that ignorant? Don't answer that.

[backhoe]

Old, but relevant:

That Bloody Century Pass'd- "We have nothing to fear but Governments Themselves..."

[Billthedrill]

The reason the deaths due to communism aren't given the same emphasis as the ones due to Nazism are that these were actively denied and covered up by many in the West who continue their activities long after communism's formal fall. This book should be required reading at the university level: The Black Book of Communism.

Communism is attractive - romantic - because of its emphasis on beautiful abstraction, its cynical exploitation of ideals, and its insistent denial of the practical consequences of its policies and deflection of the blame for them to its opponents. It lasted as long as it did because its adherents were very good at this. It still has its attractions to those who prefer pretty myths to tragic reality.

[Ptarmigan]

Commumism is a disease of the brain. Thank God for anti-Communist regimes. Communists sympathize with the Nazis until 1941. Afer World War II, they sympathized with the Nazis again. Many Nazis became Communists, especially Gestapos, who became East German guards.

[bc boy]

good stuff but how about this reality check....universities and colleges in the usa and canada have been overun and taken over by marxist faculty members..our kids get a steady diet of,at best,socialist/liberalism spew,...it takes our kids 20 or 30 years to kick the socialist habit after 4 years of "education" in college by the tax paid pseudointellectuals ...this is not good...eh bc boy

[RightWingAtheist]

With the Soviet Union under Stalin running neck-and-neck with it.

[RightWingAtheist]

Communism is attractive - romantic - because of its emphasis on beautiful abstraction, its cynical exploitation of ideals, and its insistent denial of the practical consequences of its policies and deflection of the blame for them to its opponents. It lasted as long as it did because its adherents were very good at this. It still has its attractions to those who prefer pretty myths to tragic reality.

Spot on, and an explanation which applies to every system of belief which has led to totalitarianism

[traviskicks]

Communism is the greatest evil that man has ever known. It is responsible for more than 100 millions deaths (more than all the wars in history combined), millions and millions of refugees and the subjugation and slavery of over 2 billion people since WWII. Communist regimes always follow a similar pattern. A Communist regime has never been elected, so first Communists must orchestrate a revolution, often with the support of funding from preexisting Communist regime. Next, Communists dissolve private property, nationalize media and begin a brutal purge of political prisoners and the upper classes. To conduct it's class warfare and maintain control of the revolting people, the state will militarize, establish a large secret police presence, and create horrific labor/reeducation camps. The economy collapses, failed farm policies result in starvation, refugees flee, and the government begins to export Communist revolution abroad. How far the government is willing to push the Communist philosophy will directly equate with the severity of these events and the suffering of their people. This exact pattern has come to pass in the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, North Korea, Angola, Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Cuba. A few countries on this list have not experienced the true hell of Communism because the governments either didn't last long enough to take full root, or total Communist policies were not pursued in earnest.

http://www.neoperspectives.com/johnkerry.htm