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--- Sender: "Dennis N. Randall" <randall@pcix.com> Subject: Re: Communists WERE 'the good guys' (and women)...TONYW@siucvmb.siu.edu wrote: >=20 > Grover Furr has posted some very provocative ideas. Certainly, Joseph > Losey in his interview with Michel Chion stated that the old Soviet Union > acted as a potential barrier to the vicious actions of capitalism that ar= e > now world wide. > But the defence of Stalinism in terms of human freedom? How does one > reconcile this with the millions who died in the pourges (far more than > under the Nazis), the perversion of the original Bolshevik ideals, and > the brutal elimination of figures such as Bukharin now "rehabilitated."
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D
You don=92t justify or reconcile the slaughter of Stalinism with the potent= ial "good" benefits of Communism to=20 hold the worst excess of the capitalist systems in check.
To do so would be akin to praising the Nazis for their contribution to rock= et science and over looking the=20 Holocaust. One does not cancel the other.
OTOH - there is a point to be made. This nation (the USA) has made a missio= n of "standing against Communism"=20 to the point we no longer seemed to stand for much of anything else. Like a= drunk leaning against a wall -=20 we=92ve lost much of our balance now that the wall has been removed.
It=92s ironic - but when Communism was alive and well we were prepared to s= pend our treasure and destroy the=20 world. Now that the "Evil Empire" has crumbled =96 we don=92t want to spend= a dime to build a world where war=20 would be unthinkable. Instead, we=92ll sit back =96 not aid our old adversa= ry =96 let a new generation of Reds take=20 power, and then re-join a new arms race.=20
We as a nation need to rediscover our ideals and dreams. We need to re-ligh= t the lamp and again (or for the=20 first time =96 depending on your point of view) become the leaders of a new= world order based upon justice,=20 liberty and equality.
Dennis N. Randall