[EM] Re: Election-methods Digest, Vol 10, Issue 34

[Russ Paielli]

Araucaria Araucana araucaria.araucana-at-gmail.com |EMlist| wrote:
> On 18 Apr 2005 at 22:04 UTC-0700, Russ Paielli wrote:
> 
>>While we're on the topic of murderous governments, I'd like to try a fun
>>little quiz for anyone who cares to give it a try. The following 
>>paragraph expresses views remarkably similar to Mike's. Can you guess 
>>who wrote it and who he worked for? (I have cut a few giveaway words to 
>>make the game a bit more challenging.)
>>
>>--Russ
>>
>>"We are socialists because we see the social question as a matter of
>>necessity and justice for the very existence of a state for our people, 
>>not a question of cheap pity or insulting sentimentality. The worker has 
>>a claim to a living standard that corresponds to what he produces. We 
>>have no intention of begging for that right. Incorporating him in the 
>>state organism is not only a critical matter for him, but for the whole 
>>nation. The question is larger than the eight-hour day. It is a matter 
>>of forming a new state consciousness that includes every productive 
>>citizen. Since the political powers of the day are neither willing nor 
>>able to create such a situation, socialism must be fought for. It is a 
>>fighting slogan both inwardly and outwardly. It is aimed domestically at 
>>the bourgeois parties and [cut] at the same time, because both are sworn 
>>enemies of the coming workers' state. It is directed abroad at all 
>>powers that threaten our [cut] existence and thereby the possibility of 
>>the coming socialist [cut] state."
> 
> 
> Cheap trick, Russ ;-).
> 
>       http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/haken32.htm
> 
> This turnaround thing has been done before.  See Emmett Grogan's
> autobiography "Ringolevio", for example (late in the book):

Well, I'm not sure what you mean by "this turnaround thing." As far as 
I'm concerned, the "turnaround thing" is the great historical whitewash 
that somehow managed to turn a monstrous socialist regime into a 
"right-wing" phenomenon, and which to this very day still tries to 
associate conservatives with that ideology.

Think about the morons who compare Bush with Hitler. Hitler didn't "cut 
taxes for the rich," he *murdered* many of them, many of whom happened 
to be Jews, of course. Hitler and the losers who supported him *hated* 
the Jews precisely *because* many of them were, shall we say, 
"economically successful."

The broader point is that socialism and communism have been far and away 
the most effective tool of despots for the past century. How many tens 
of millions more must die before some of us finally wake up?

--Russ