Whenever someone tries to find a positive thing about Hitler (hey, he was right that smoking is bad for you!), they are quite rightly regarded as a moral cretin.
Frankly, anyone who tries to find a positive spin on Lenin (or Stalin, or Mao) should also be regarded as a moral cretin.
Just because he once expressed an opinion you agree with does not make him any less of a monster.
Bingo, you’re almost there.
Whatever you say. Again, I’d like to confine this conversation to Lenin’s sizing up of 20th century corporate imperialism as cited above. Does the 21st look any different?
Some folks call it corporate socialism.
Right. Ike (under Mac Arthur) along with Patton led the charge on the peacefully assembled WWI vets in the Bonus Army.
Lenin would have shaken his head but would not have been surprised. After all, it was Allen Dulles, CIA Director ('53-'61 and brother of John Foster, Ike’s “Mr. Brinkmanship” SOS,) who “prevailed” (so the story goes) upon Ike, just before the Summit Conference, to send up one last U2 piloted by Gary Powers. Boom. Nikita used it as an excuse to bow out and the Cold War and lots of jobs were guaranteed for another 30 years.
OK, Lenin was bollocks, like any modern-day head of a “socialist” state facing our CIA piloted drones. * He* only had to deal with our support of the White Army. What a wuss.
In WWII, we harnessed populist, anti-facist and anti-colonial partisans around the world with promises of freedom, democracy and self-determination. Once they had helped us dispose of them Nasty Nazis and Nips, we, in essence, gave them the corporate boot which is still alive and kicking strong three feet up our collective ass.
Anyone else noticed?
Are you trying to argue by incoherence, adhay?
If that’s what you don’t get out of it, I can’t disagree.
Whisky tango foxtrot? Francis Gary Powers’ infamous U-2 flight was hardly “one last”; it was just one of a series of routine surveillance overflights out of Peshawar that had been going on for three years, and which the Soviets had been previously incapable of intercepting until improvements in the guidance control system in the SA-2 anti-aircraft SAM gave it marginal capability of intercept at high altitude. This was a huge embarrassment for the United States and the Central Intelligence Agency in particular as the agency had previously advised that the U-2 plane was out of range for any extant weapon system the Soviets might deploy to intercept it. This did result in acceleration of the CORONA satellite program and inception of the A-12 ‘Oxcart’ (which lead to the SR-71 ‘Blackbird’), although it should be noted that the U-2 and derivatives remained in operation with the USAF and NASA in various capacities up to the present day. Your insinuation that the shoot down of Powers’ plane was some kind of insidious plot by back room power players is wholly without merit, and as for the rest of your post, I can’t make heads or tails of what point you are aiming for; it reads like a historiographical version of Pin The Tail On The Donkey.
Stranger
So the billion plus Chinese that like Mao and his legacy are moral cretins? Lenin’s Imperialism is an cogent and useful analysis of how countries (and corporations) were dividing up all the lesser developed places in the world for the purpose of exploiting the markets. Virtually all political scientists regard this as a very important piece of political philosophy, and dislike of Lenin or Leninism or communism doesn’t change that. Hitler had no important philosophical contribution to political philosophy.
Anyone who blathers about international relations at all has a pre-requisite of reading Imperialism before being taken seriously. The same cannot be said for Mein Kampf or the Little Red Book.
The point of my anti-communism and anti-socialism is because they can effectively cause the people living under them to be no better off than slaves to the state. Capitalism can and will make us slaves to corporations. As Adam Smith noted, unchecked power of the wealthy can leave to great evil.
I don’t know. I’m particularly bad at understanding things. So it’s likely I just misunderstood what you wrote.
WWI was a product of peace. No one had ever expected the possibility of benevolent relations to form, so when it seemed to be doing so – thanks to trade – everyone got nervous that it couldn’t last, so they started to build up their military in preparation for a war to break out. Seeing their neighbors build up arms made everyone more nervous, until a catalyst finally made it all jump into action.
Again, this is a product of human stupidity, and if anything is an odd testament to the power of trade to create peace.
Lenin really is like a pair of tits? Huh. And here I thought he was just a moldering mass murdering mummy…
-XT
Yeah, a bunch of Germans all thought pretty well of Hitler, too. Moral cretins? Yup.
Which it has from the emergence of agricultural capital 10,000 years ago.
In the past, armies were paid with booty and booty. Now, the “US Military” is largely subbed out in unbid contracts to private corporate armies … no need to face the usual popular democratic resistance to conscription or any kind of transparency as to where the money goes.
Tony Benn, a socialist from England would had a beef when he and others are added to the same column as the communists, like many socialists would tell you, democracy is the tool that has to be used to prevent that unchecked power.
“I think that democracy is the most controversial idea in the world. Nobody in power likes democracy. Stalin didn’t like it, Hitler didn’t like it, leaders of religious organizations don’t like it, and corporate business doesn’t like it. And yet without it there is no chance of changing things.” - Tony Benn.
And always has since the emergence agricultural capital, 10,000 years ago. But with $3 gas and Walmart, who gives a shit? Time’s coming when everybody will, I WAGer.
Bolding mine.
Incorrect, and this would be a great debate point if you can provide a citation.
Bid or not, war has been privatized and sanitized for public consumption.
http://rebelreports.com/post/116277092/obama-has-250-000-contractors-in-iraq-and-afghan
http://mostlywater.org/top_100_private_contractors_iraq_and_afghanistan
Without these contractors, our ME adventures would not be politically viable.
What is a cretin? It’s what’s left of a rational human being after being fed a starvation diet of mom’s apple pie all his life.
A professor of mine, who was from Russia (who had spent time in a gulag), referred to Lenin as “the greatest criminal in the history of Russia”. He also pointed out that had there been no Lenin, there would not have been a Stalin. Think about that.
(snipped and my bolding)
By whom? Soviet gravediggers and coffin manufacturers?
Right. And if it hadn’t been for George Washington there would not have been a W.