Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dayuhan who wrote (12168)	8/27/1998 4:07:00 AM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 71178

To the rest of the thread, 3 questions: 1. Does anyone object to our using the thread as a personal debating platform? 2. Does anyone else care to offer an opinion? 3. Most important - do we, by continuing, risk the wrath of Rambi, which is universally held to be awful? As a relative newcomer, I thought I should ask. Steve

To: Dayuhan who wrote (12168)	8/27/1998 11:50:00 PM
From: JF Quinnelly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

I think where I disagree with your analysis is in your estimation of communist flexibility. Communist practice has always been about raw power, not about a happy populace. I'm sure the regular Hos of North Vietnam would have far preferred American consumerism to the glory of being part of the Vanguard of World Revolution, or whatever godawful gibberish was being fed them, but their leaders weren't asking them for their opinion. Communist governments routinely declared war on their own citizens, jailing or killing them for 'crimes' like property ownership. Communist regimes didn't have free elections, two party systems, or a separation of powers. It was the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, in their wonderfully poetic self-description. I think you commit the error of projecting your own humane values on a movement of ruthless people. You see Ho as someone who would be open to persuasion, much as you would, but as a dedicated communist cadre he had more in common with Nazis than with you. This isn't a political party in the sense of what we know in America. If an American political party achieves its goals by seducing the electorate, a communist party achieved its goals by rape. Once they achieved power they didn't ask for your input, and if you got in the way you would end up in a prison camp or dead. 20th century history is replete with examples of this. There were no examples of a communist government holding elections and being voted out of office. These regimes either were overthrown from outside or collapsed from within.