Posted on 04/27/2007 6:10:54 PM PDT by A. Pole
LOL :)
It would have been easier for you if you had posted it anonymously, and without her or her lefty-America-hating rags name. But having a sense of humor, I DO appreciate the alleged superiority your post # 17 invokes in my direction :)
Yet it can be that even Charles Manson might be right about something and Mother Theresa could be wrong. (Not that I consider Katrina vanden Heuvel to be like either of them)
I would! But I guess it would be against the rules. Still I exercised some "editorial judgment" by picking the passages I liked :)
I wonder who has the real historical amnesia here. Perestroika and glastnost had nothing to do with democracy. They were attempts to reform the communist system and keep the Communist Party in control. While Gorbachev may have opened up the system to allow more outside voices to be heard, he was not willing to give them any role in making in making any actual decisions. There was no movement to open and free elections under Gorbachev, all the final decisions were still to be made by the Party.
Even if one were to assume Gorbachev had "reformist" inclinations, he should only be respected for folding a losing hand.
A former full professor of design engineering at Moscow U told me that in his experience you really could not plan on ever finding enough screws, nuts, bolts or nails for any project of any kind ~ NEVER.
This was not a mature economy.
Pole, you are banned? Yes, I see you are and so you cannot answer me. This is wrong.
Some of them probably preferred it the way it was. Other Eastern European countries like Poland and Hungary had the same "shock therapy" policies and I don't see them complaining. You're right Russia should be so lucky considering they're the ones who started the communist scourge that brought about so much suffering in the world.
She is the sexiest commie.
Sorry.
How much of the violence we see in Iraq is the result of US imposed economic restructuring (shock therapy)?
I was emailed by third Freeper that A.Pole is banned. Supposed reason is “trolling”. After few years of posting A.Pole was exposed to be troll?? This is simply ridiculous… I rarely agreed with him myself, I find his pro-Russian bias ala “Yeltsin—Father of Democracy” more than irritating but still I see no reason to ban him because of that. Whatever to say about him, he represented high culture of posting, I dare to say above average on FR. I ask moderators to bring him back and I think that I’m not alone here to think so.
You are not alone.
"You're right Russia should be so lucky considering they're the ones who started the communist scourge that brought about so much suffering in the world."Was Karl Marx a Russian? Marxism is purely a product of the 19-the century Western political thought.
+1
The Russians were the first to put this ideology into practice and even if they weren’t they relentlessly tried to shove it down everyone else’s throats. While I hope they succeed in their transition to democracy I still find it hard to feel sorry for any problems they may be having along the way.
"While I hope they succeed in their transition to democracy I still find it hard to feel sorry for any problems they may be having along the way."Some things you might never be able to fully understand, unless you lived through them. I was born and grew up in the Soviet Union and my family left in 1992, amid possibly the worst of the chaos and infrastructure/society breakdown of the 1st post-soviet decade. I can see why many people back then, or even now may view the relative stability of the early 80s (when the system was definitely ailing) nevermind the 70s as a better alternative to the cold, orderless (I won't use the term "lawless", since there was no "rule of law" in USSR by Western definition) and hungry, crumbling reality around them? So many highly educated people found themselves losing even whatever foundation of life they might have had before. They surely deserved better than what they got then or now under Putin. Whether by sheer mismanagement, or by design, the "90's reforms" surely accomplished but one thing - discredited the ideas of "democracy" and "capitalism" in the eyes of many ordinary Russians. You never had a chance to compare the "spirit" of 1989-90 among ordinary people vs. 3-5 years later, vs. today. In 1990 so many people believed that a new openness and newfound freedoms might pave the way for a better tomorrow. People felt very open towards the West and intoxicated by the influx of Western culture (I remember people watching Rambo III on VHS and almost cheering for the American character). Disillusionment from the "shock therapy" brought on a revival of bitter nationalism, and a general anti-Western sentiment. Perhaps, if the case was handled differently, things could have been different.
I agree. He’s a pretty decent guy for a Putinista. If we ban them all we won’t have anyone to debate.
That's because they've had such little experience with it, building a viable democracy takes time and doesn't happen overnight. I suspect however that Russia will eventually revert back to its traditional authoritarian form of government. Hopefully not but if they do there will be problems again if they try to impose it on everyone else.
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