Way back in 1977 when I entered graduate school in political science a popular theory going around then was “convergence theory” which held that industrial socialites and capitalist and socialist societies were converging to become more and more alike and that at some point all societies would metastasize into modern welfare states as liberalization came to the communist countries and capitalist western countries became more socialist in nature. These people have never gone away.
A great myth prepetrated by conservatives in the west is that Reagan, Thatcher and the Pope led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The reality is that internal changes in the USSR were already ongoing. What really collapsed the “apparatchik party” Soviet Union during the August 1991 putsch was in reality due to those unknown KGB troops who refused to fire on fellow Muscovites. A lesson closely watched by leaders in Beijing who would learn from that experience when their turn came in Tienanmen square and thus imported troops who would gladly fire on Chinese before they cracked down. It was quirks of incidence that collapsed the Soviet Union rather than a concerted effort of the west. Some regimes garnered lessons from it such as China, some did not.
All that occurred in Russia is that the same people who were essentially in charge the day before, were still in charge the day after. What had actually occurred in August of 1991 was simply a change of management The corporation remained the same with new logos and new flags. Socialism was not and will never be defeated as long as there are ignorant saps that believe in the drivel f equality pushed by the “intellectual vanguard”. the great contradiction of collectivist movements is that they require the sacrifice of everyone towards some collective it is always led by individualists.
We need to kill the idea. The mistake of the right is that they have done little to export ideals of liberty or to proselytize them. We must combat the left who expand their movement by converting people to their religion by doing conversions of our own.
ping
Because there is no “Evil Empire” that owns real estate, has a flag and leaders banging shoes on tables screaming they will bury us, some no longer see the threat. However, the idea of communism/socialism in actuality is not confined to some concept of a national border or flag.
Communism/socialism is today as alive as it was in the past, in fact the number of people who see virtue and merit in this paradigm have risen since the fall of the wall in 1989 and there are many examples to prove this. The dangers of centralization, of the statist thinking and governance/economic model are today as strong as ever with possibly only the Great Depression as a rival.
Because there is no enemy that is associated with this system of economic and de facto political/religious thinking which opposes and threatens us, this dogma is not seen as a threat to our republic, freedom and way of life. This again can be paralleled in history, where many Americans were in love with the idea of National Socialism until we went to war with the Nazi’s....... Ford, Charles Lindbergh.....many liked the idea of National Socialism until this idea was associated with the bad guy. Certain ideas are catchy, and when there is no branding and/or negative association attributed to them, the gullible who are easily persuaded by the rhetoric of class warfare, theories all based on some concept of social conflict convince themselves that they have a personal net benefit in believing the lie they are being sold.
Here’s my surprised face:
{:-O
No, it didn’t.
We simply failed to do anything about the useful idiots.
So let’s say I know a couple whose marriage is on the rocks and I claim that they have a strategy to put it back together. I predict we will see them spend more time apart, use different checking accounts, and spend time with the kids individually rather than as a couple. All designed to reduce friction between them and allow the relationship to revive itself.
But instead of carrying out this strategy, the bottom falls out and they get a divorce. So now they’re living apart, they’re using their own checking accounts, and they alternate custody of the kids.
Have I been proven correct? Is their marriage on track to be a world beater? Are they carrying out their strategy?
That’s kind of what Golitsyn’s predictions bring to mind.
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Yes.
The difference between fascism and communism is not like day and night as liberal socialists purport it to be; fascism and communism are like brothers of evil.
Why did communism fake its death at the collapse of the Soviet Union? Let me tell you this: The 'death' of communism was faked because the globalist elite had used the ideology to clash with capitalism during the 45 year long Cold War. It had served its purpose.
From the end of the Cold War through to the present day, the globalists would merge capitalism (blue) with communism (red) to produce fascism (purple); the ideology of the one world order.
Think Nazi Germany, times that by 100.
Yes and all the while communism was spreading here in the USA.
It’s not about Communism, it’s about Russian power, be it Czars or Commissars or Putin.
So does that mean Reagan didn’t win the Cold War after all without firing a shot as Mrs. Thatcher claimed?
The American people will endorse communism so long as it is not labeled “communist”. Huey Pierce Long, Jr., once said that ehe people could in time become “fascist” but call it “anti-fascism”.
Capitalism remains alive and well and communism remains as dead as a doornail.
But conspiracy theorists have lots of time on their hands...
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"the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century" -Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the collapse of the Soviet Union...
"World democratic opinion has yet to realize the alarming implications of President Vladimir Putin's State of the Union speech on April 25, 2005, in which he said that the collapse of the Soviet Union represented the 'greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.'
http://www.hooverdigest.org/053/beichman.html
The left keeps regrouping and coming back. It doesn’t require a conspiracy. It doesn’t need to play dead. It just waits for an opportunity for a power play. All it takes is a few determined nuts and a quorum of useful idiots.
Communism will never be dead as long as there are universities.
Tremendous article, neverdem! Thanks for posting.
This is why the Russians are masters of the complex game of chess. Unfortunately, most of us suck at simple checkers.
if any of these countries - The soviets, the chicoms etc - had given up communism they would have allowed their citzens to arm themselves!! The second amendment is ultimately the main deterent, with the exception of a military that may question a tyrant, to the commies trying for total take over of the US
Yep.
The short answer is yes. Communism and socialism is the crappy idea that refuses to die. Not because it doesn’t work, but because most humans refuse to use logic and think in terms of envy and schadenfreude and use communism to articulate it.