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Then explain to me how you intend to forcibly alter society to make it the way you want it to be without using force.
Finn Jarber said it best, "have a nice day".
I got no real quarrel with you but I'm done arguing. Again, you have no clue what I want and you can't point to one thing I said that indicates I want the govt to interfere with every aspect of our lives. Because it's nonsense.
Many people, including people who were in the USSR at the time would disagree with your first sentence. Note that neither you nor Finn can account for why Gorby spent so much time and energy trying to get SDI quashed.
Cuba and North Korea do not show that all authoritative regimes can stay in power indefinitely. Every case is unique. Cuba is a small island nation, and North Korea is used as a pawn by China. Your mistake is trying to turn FP into physics. Physics has laws and iron principles, but FP does not. How do you explain the failure of the USSR to subdue Afghanistan? Why didn't they maintain indefinite control?
It's not relevant that Gorbachev tried to quash the SDI. The question is -- how do you get from Point A to Point B? At what point did the SDI influence something that happened that brought down Communism? Or, as I argue, did Communism collapse because of something completely unrelated (i.e. relaxing authoritarian controls and creating a credible, organized opposition)? Obviously he did not want the US to be able to destroy the USSR if the USSR would not have the capacity to do the same. I don't see what that has to do with the collapse of the USSR -- the events that followed seem to have transpired because of changes in the way the CPSU ruled the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc states.
The USSR did not collapse because it suddenly had problems. It had always had problems. Going into the 1980s, with an aging CPSU apparatus, those problems were getting worse. A strong central government had always assured dissent was not tolerated and that no body aside from the CPSU could have any power. Once Gorbachev chipped away at that strong central government and created a body outside the CPSU that was ready, willing, and able to govern, the collapse was inevitable. He allowed people to move against the government and created an organized opposition, which had nothing to do with the US launching the Strategic Defense Initiative. Therefore, I can confidently state the while political theory is not physics, the SDI had nothing to do with the collapse of the USSR or the Eastern Bloc.
The USSR failed to subdue Afghanistan due to lack of political will to continue, combined with infinite will of their opponent. Same reason the US failed in Vietnam.
[quote=wutitiz;32267990] "I believe that communism is another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last — last pages even now are being written."
Sadly Reagon was wrong as these same loons are now infesting the US and taking us down. How did we get here? How do so many folks not understand history and just go along with the madness this government is putting to us? I mean this is recent history too not 500 years ago or what have you but just in the last century. It's quite amazing how stupid people are.
Actually this liberal can recall every detail of crossing through East Germany, going into Berlin, crossing through Checkpoint Charlie and entering East Berlin at the height of the Cold War.
Very few liberals are actual communists (Obama certainly isn't.) Most liberals, such as myself, consider the Soviet-style communism to be one of the most evil, brutal systems ever devised. I witnessed it. Up close and personal. (Including being detained on the East side because there had been an attempt to escape. Checkpoint Charlie was closed on the Eastern side when that happened. Two men died that day, trying to reach freedom. They were shot before they reached the river. A tragically common event.) Reagan had little to do with bringing the wall down. The rise of the Solidarity movement in Poland and the strength of a man named John Paul II did MUCH more than the speech-reader named Ronald Reagan.
Ronald Reagan was a great President and the modern Democrats could never hope to have a leader as great as he was. John Paul II was also staunchly opposed to abortion, something that the modern left champions.
Ronald Reagan was a great President and the modern Democrats could never hope to have a leader as great as he was. John Paul II was also staunchly opposed to abortion, something that the modern left champions.
Old Ron was the best president I've seen in my life. He spoke about the greatness of America, how wonderful freedom was, how you can achieve whatever you want when you have freedom. ON and on. I don't see anything like it from Obama or Bush or Bubba. The American dream is what this country is about and it has been sold out. Pathetic is what this nation has become due to these fugging politicians and bankers teaming up to rape the country of our wealth. Sad times.
Old Ron was the best president I've seen in my life. He spoke about the greatness of America, how wonderful freedom was, how you can achieve whatever you want when you have freedom. ON and on. I don't see anything like it from Obama or Bush or Bubba. The American dream is what this country is about and it has been sold out. Pathetic is what this nation has become due to these fugging politicians and bankers teaming up to rape the country of our wealth. Sad times.
I was only two years old when he left office, but his words live on!
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