An Open Letter to the Rosenberg Son

Front Page Magazine ^ | 6/18/03 | Ronald Radosh

[DPB101]

Stalin, Trotsky, and Lenin were evil manipulators. but average rank-and-file communists often believe in what they are doing.

I don't believe, for one second, their intentions are ever good. Nobody is that stupid. It is all about envy, greed and me, me, me. They get in the cult and are stroked by others in the cult. They are told what wonderful humanitarians they are by people as insecure, greedy and grasping as they are. It is an egocentric, materialistic self-perpetuating con which even cons the believers into thinking, on the surface, that they are doing good (when they really know they are not).

Btw...those who officially joined the CPUSA darn well knew it was funded and controled from the Kremlin. They don't have the excuse you use of Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin were bad...but.....but...

[drhogan]

you should study communism more closely. read books by and about people who were communists but eventually dropped away, usually after some particularly evil move by the party. if they knew it was evil all along, why did they get so upset and drop away? think about people like david horowitz, who is now a conservative. he broke away from the communist new left after his friend was murderedcby the Black Panthers.
there are quite a few neo-cons, Bush supporters, and Christians who were previously communists.(I don't just mean CPUSA, but also Trotskyites and Weathermen)
I think most people who join bad political movements do it for well-intentioned, if also misguided and self-serving reasons.
i think it was Jesus who said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
i'm not writing this to defend communists (or myself). I think that to fight something effectively, it helps to understand it better. some communists are outright evil, some are greedy, some are opportunists, and some are well-intentioned. I think the same can be said about followers of Pat Buchanan, and other crafty leaders.

[Scenic Sounds]

It is all about envy, greed and me, me, me.

What economic system doesn't rely upon these natural human tendencies?

Adam Smith; The Wealth of Nations; the "invisible hand."

[Scenic Sounds]

But they persist in refusing to recognize the truth:

It's always hard for kids to see their parents in a rational way. The important thing, I think, is that most of the rest of us know the essential truth about what happened. The history is pretty clear at this point.

[DPB101]

I know who they are. I grew up with them. Lived down the street from Elizabeth Bentley. Never met one of them from CPUSA to SDS to Weathermen to ANSWER who didn't have a deep disdain for humanity, weren't in it for the strokes from fellow members and who didn't cover their own insecurity by overwhelming arrogance.

I take that back. I met more than a few who were just crooks and/or sociopaths. They were running a game. To them, it was a source of endless amusement there were so many suckers who would give in to their demands.

[Scenic Sounds]

Good for you. The lyrics are the lyrics and, if there's a message in there, it's gotta be in the lyrics.

Right? LOL.

[nopardons]

You've described those people, to a tee !

It was a " game ", a " power trip ", and a way to get unalloied adulation from many, for that group. Hoffman and his compadres brainwashed many into believing the matra : " DON'T TRUST ANYONE OVER THIRTY ", when he and they were ALL well over ... THIRTY !

[DPB101]

(communism)is all about envy, greed and me, me, me.

What economic system doesn't rely upon these natural human tendencies?

The one developed by Western Civilization. The one which has an ethical basis to it. You want to see what happens when that is taken away, look at Russia when they tried to embrace capitalism. There were no moral restraints on anyone.

Aside from the "invisible hand" there is an invisible moral agreement that one will not take all one can get, that one will stop at a certain point and not abuse the system. The system fails if the vast majority are not honest.

Max Weber outlined it pretty well in The Protestant Ethnic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

Other societies can, of course, develop free markets. But it was the Christian west which did it best.

[Scenic Sounds]

LOL. Homo economicus! ;-)

[nopardons]

The novel, titled " STRANGE FRUIT ", was about lesbianism ; not about lynching.

[nopardons]

And yes, I think the book prdates the song.

[thegreatbeast]

Are you sure? I started to read it and found it to be about a black girl and written colloquially so that I had to work at making out what was being said. For some reason, I put it down and failed to pick it up again but it was too early to know what it was about. I have it tucked away somewhere.
Lesbianism? Hmm.

[nopardons]

Yes, I am positive. I have the book and didn't know what it was about when I bought it, years and years ago. I stopped reading, once I got the gist of the storyline.

[Brian Allen]

There are two main drivers of evil.

Those who chose evil.

And those, for their stupidity, cynicism, greed -- or blind prejudices -- whom evil chooses.

[Brian Allen]

<< Other societies can, of course, develop free markets. >>

I doubt, given that Capitalism's primary requirement descends FRom the Principle of Individual Liberty that descend's FRom Judeo-Christianity's knowledge that Man is created in God's Image. And FRom the striving to be as close to that Image, that in its turn, descends FRom that.

And further, from the experience of having lived and worked these past 40-odd years throughout Oceana, Melanesia, Asia, [In the middle of which I sit at this minute] Africa, North Africa, Arabia and the Middle-East -- and having spent much time, also, in dead-and-decadent and duplicitous Europe -- I will bet my next ten years' income that "other societies" can not!

Every other perceived "free market" on Earth, including Japan's and Singapore's and the European Neo-Soviet's -- and especially "china's" budding "free-market" charade -- is invariably fascistic and but a very poor [And probably counterfeited] Xerox copy of our own.

[DPB101]

I agree.

[drhogan]

i'm really not pro-communist--I got my nose broken by a thuggish group of reds (the "revolutionary union"). this organization later participated in freeing a murderer from a california prison van. a guard was murdered in the attack.
I'm also not disagreeing with what you say about people you have met. i have met sociopathic communists; and probably most communists are arrogant and possibly even suffering from psychological disorders. (also, some red parties seemed to have more sociopaths than others.)Probably all communists are self-deluding (except the sociopaths and narcissists, who usually end up as leaders).
but i have met some who seemed to be decent people. i'm not sure they were totally sane, but many seemed to be reasonably well-intentioned. i think many former reds from the sixties dropped out of the communist movement after a few years and later turned to normal political parties. Many became liberals, but quite a few became conservatives or neo-conservatives (as well as Christians).
I'm curious about where you grew up and how you know some many reds. were your parents in the CP?

[MEG33]

Interesting exchange about communism here.