freedom of the press

[Subhash.Jaireth at AGSO.GOV.AU]

                All this was gotten not through a benevolant ruling entity
(in your words
                "Socialist economy"), but rather umitigated oppression and
great human cost.
                It's therefore foolish to glorify the Soviet Union as having
achieved something
                truly dignifying to humanity.  And whatever it achieved it
really was for a very
short period of time.

Yes, but it is also equally foolish to entertain historical/ideological
blind spots which make you only 'see' things/people/events/cultures in terms
of strictly binary oppositions: good and bad, good and evil. It is hard to
imagine if the prosperity and wealth which the so called free world (the
'west') boasts so much about, could have been achieved without systematic
colonial oppression and destruction of indigenous peoples and their
cultures?


Subhash


                -----Original Message-----
                From:   Max Pyziur [mailto:pyz at PANIX.COM]
                Sent:   Thursday, 21 September 2000 12:06
                To:     SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
                Subject:        Re: freedom of the press

                Yoshimasa Tsuji wrote:
                >
                > I remember having heard this decades ago. An Austrian
economist
                > in the early 1920's argued for the impossibility of a
Socialist
                > economy as it lacks the measure with which to calculate
the quantity
                > of economic goods. Theoretically he was right, but
contrary to his
                > prediction, the Soviet Union survived much, much longer
than he
                > had expected. More than that, the standard of living
indeed improved
                > under socialism (longer life expectancy, improved sewage
system, etc.)

                All this was gotten not through a benevolant ruling entity
(in your words
                "Socialist economy"), but rather umitigated oppression and
great human cost.
                It's therefore foolish to glorify the Soviet Union as having
achieved something
                truly dignifying to humanity.  And whatever it achieved it
really was for a very
                short period of time.

                > If the oil price goes down again,

                Probably within a year if not sooner.

                > the  life in Russia will be ruined,
                > but let us hope there will be something better by that
time. The life
                > in Russia is totally unpredictable and uncertain: people
are more or less
                > forced to play Russian roulette every day.
                >   As somebody has said Russia cannot be understood by
reason but by
                > heart. For those who hate Russians, Russia will remain an
enigma for ever.

                No enigma.  The central power of the SU performed its work
very well, atomising
                existence, removing even the barest collective bonds. Once
this central power
                began to unravel it left behind, especially in Russia, an
amorphous mass of
                humans who for several generations have not known things
such as local
                government or the spontaneity of collective action; Russians
are without a shred
                of ethnic culture (which the other peoples of the SU
retained in one form or
                another, to lesser or greater degrees) on which to fall
back.  Consequently,
                Russia, as the successor to the SU, is in a pathetic state
rapidly becoming one
                of the weakest and most pitiable national societies, rife
with corruption and
                mediocrity.

                > Cheers,
                > Tsuji

                Max Pyziur                                     BRAMA -
Gateway Ukraine
                pyz at brama.com
http://www.brama.com/


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