Wonderful post, John...thank you! We need more reminders like this of the human and economic devastation of communism. Many today seem to have forgotten...
Why the distinction between state-owned and private ownership when both are still centrally controlled by government? Is the author asserting that Fascism is good but Communism is bad because of the arm's length private ownership provides authoritarian control where government isn't allowed direct control? Like Twitter Files and the pandemic protocols revealed is the current construct of the US governing model.
Mussolini, Hitler and a whole lot of US leaders, bankers and industrialists were big fans of Fascism, you know. Including Prescott Bush, father and grandfather to two US presidents, one who declared a New World Order was here. Kind of like a UN Agenda 2030/WEF Great Reset.
Another big fan of Fascism was the father of allopathic medicine, John D. Rockefeller, who's petrochemicals became what we know as Big Pharma. The author's choice of words is very curious in this light.
How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power
The story goes that Leonid Brezhnev (if you don't know who he is, you just might be one of those doomed, as Santayana wrote, to repeat history) had his 100 yr old grandmother visit him in Moscow in the 1960s.
He proudly took her around his offices as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. showing her his Italian marble private bathroom with solid gold sink handles and the like, showed her his multiple well appointed dachas, all outfitted with the latest in Parisian fashion, the 10 Zil limousines he had waiting for him at all times; showed her the giant mahongany desk with solid gold handles, the chandeliers which incorporated real diamonds, and proudly boasted about the 20 attendants he had at his beck and call for every and any whim.
Finally, the end of the day came, and he dismissed his servants.
His ancient granny, born before the Bolshevik Revolution, frantically and furtively looked around to make sure absolutely NO ONE was around. She then, very, very carefully, sidled up to Leonid and, in sotto voce, whispers so no one else could hear:
"This is all very well Leonid. But... WHAT IF THE COMMUNISTS COME??"
Or maybe this story is really about Gov. "Hairdo" Newsome, Nancy Pelosi, the Obamas on their zillion dollar property on all white Martha's Vineyard at 79 Turkeyland Dr., Edgartown, MA (which whatsmyelevation.com shows is 3 FEET above, sea level, or a thousand and one other assorted Hollywood Learjet leftists.
There might surely be a lot of criticizing that is valid onto Cuban regime, but discarding the evil that the US empire has inflicted upon that country, and Latin America as a whole, completely misses the point.
Of all people who could do this criticizing, someone who has seen and felt the power of the empire upon himself (think twitter files and beyond) and then failing to consider its effects upon some other entity is just a typical US-european viewpoint: "the government went full communist China-like all covid relayed issues" and then, thinking that Mexico 1913, Guatemala 1954, Chile 1973, Lybia 2011, et cetera are mere Banana Republic failures.
This very crisis should, at least, highlight the fact that all the oppression the US regime has done upon their non-compliant citizens covid-wise is a mild version of what they can and do to a lot of countries with non-compliant governments.
"History has demonstrated time and again that command economies (in which all property is owned by the state ) DO NOT WORK. Under such regimes, competence and expertise evaporate."
And yet the USSR, despite staggering losses suffered in WWII, and facing a hostile post-war alliance that threatens them even to this day, still managed to counter the US ICBM threat, launch a fleet of nuclear submarines, develop superior military aircraft and put the first satellite and the first man in orbit.
THEN, after being subjected to a decade of rapacious western bank sponsored so-called free enterprise, they managed to regroup under a reformation of state controlled enterprise to become the most technically advanced military power on the planet - that is unless you think capitalism pulled that off and the ultimate owner of the defence industry isn't the Russian state.
Speaking of competence and expertise, Russia recently announced their intention to abandon the Bologna system and return to the Soviet system of education with its heavy emphasis on STEM and notable lack of women's and trans-gender studies.
I'm not arguing the case for state enterprise so much as pointing out that the precept of command economy vs. ... what? capitalism? free enterprise? ... is a false dichotomy. Both at their root are command structures, it's simply a question of who is in command. The people via their constituted government, or the owners of private capital? Corruption can exist in either of course, but it's much harder for private capital to corrupt a government when there isn't any private capital, or where it at least can't accumulate to a threatening degree.
I think the real difference has more to do with how socially cohesive one's culture is vs. what form of production is in effect. Obviously some ratio of the two will prevail, depending on historic and material conditions, provided of course the people are in control and are able to hold their position. If not, you get what you see today. A small entitled elite running roughshod over everyone else.
If possible, please visit and/or take photos/video of actual Cuban hospitals. Not the tourist ones that the likes of Michael Moore visit. But the ones the actual citizens have access to. Where you need to bring your own medicine, bed sheets, etc. Where people wait months for simple procedures unless their relatives in Miami can send them money and medicine, etc.
"History has demonstrated time and again that command economies (in which all property is owned by the state ) DO NOT WORK. "
Are you referring to Cuba, or to Venezuelifornia? Maybe the People's Socialist Hellhole of New York? Perhaps Zimbabwillinois? No? The probably the WEF command economy by all those self-congratulatory idiot savants there, right?
Agree. And if we look around the United States is headed rapidly in the same direction. When we allow disturbed humans to become our leaders we eventually reap what we sow.
I Love Cuba. But I thoroughly despise the War-Bankers who’ve bought our elections, policymakers and war policies for the past two hundred years. Wars are such Bloody Frauds--all of them.
A great example of the consequences of the kind of top-down directivie control which certain powers now seek to impose on a global scale. Import to have this historical perspective!
I offer a another perspective on getting beyond both this communist approach to controlling everything, and the destructiveness of unbridled captialism here:
Yes, when the state owns everything, it all goes to Hell. Because most significantly, it owns YOU, body, mind and soul. There is no such thing as Individual Rights in collectivist societies, because the Individual is subjugated to society and obliterated for all intents and purposes.
To the degree you personally are guaranteed the fruits of your labor, you will be motivated from within, to work hard. Why should you put your efforts into creating a business, if it, or the money you earn from it, or your freedom to run it as you think it should be run, are all stolen from you? (Isn't that slavery, with invisible chains??)
Unless your mind is free from force, you will not be able to create. That is just the nature of "man, as rational being." Thoughts, the creation of new ideas, reasoning things through--these must be done first by individuals. And THIS is the foundational reason as to why tyrannies of every flavor, create only misery for their citizens.
Wonderful post, John...thank you! We need more reminders like this of the human and economic devastation of communism. Many today seem to have forgotten...
Wow. You cover so such important territory, both explicitly and implicitly, in this tight & compelling essay. Thank you.
Why the distinction between state-owned and private ownership when both are still centrally controlled by government? Is the author asserting that Fascism is good but Communism is bad because of the arm's length private ownership provides authoritarian control where government isn't allowed direct control? Like Twitter Files and the pandemic protocols revealed is the current construct of the US governing model.
Mussolini, Hitler and a whole lot of US leaders, bankers and industrialists were big fans of Fascism, you know. Including Prescott Bush, father and grandfather to two US presidents, one who declared a New World Order was here. Kind of like a UN Agenda 2030/WEF Great Reset.
Another big fan of Fascism was the father of allopathic medicine, John D. Rockefeller, who's petrochemicals became what we know as Big Pharma. The author's choice of words is very curious in this light.
How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power
UK Guardian, September 25, 2004
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
American Supporters of European Fascists
http://www.rationalrevolution.net/war/american_supporters_of_the_europ.htm
George HW Bush 1991 Speech to the UN
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4509283/user-clip-george-bush-1991-our-quest-world-order
How Rockefeller Created the Business of Western Medicine
https://meridianhealthclinic.com/how-rockefeller-created-the-business-of-western-medicine/
The story goes that Leonid Brezhnev (if you don't know who he is, you just might be one of those doomed, as Santayana wrote, to repeat history) had his 100 yr old grandmother visit him in Moscow in the 1960s.
He proudly took her around his offices as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. showing her his Italian marble private bathroom with solid gold sink handles and the like, showed her his multiple well appointed dachas, all outfitted with the latest in Parisian fashion, the 10 Zil limousines he had waiting for him at all times; showed her the giant mahongany desk with solid gold handles, the chandeliers which incorporated real diamonds, and proudly boasted about the 20 attendants he had at his beck and call for every and any whim.
Finally, the end of the day came, and he dismissed his servants.
His ancient granny, born before the Bolshevik Revolution, frantically and furtively looked around to make sure absolutely NO ONE was around. She then, very, very carefully, sidled up to Leonid and, in sotto voce, whispers so no one else could hear:
"This is all very well Leonid. But... WHAT IF THE COMMUNISTS COME??"
Or maybe this story is really about Gov. "Hairdo" Newsome, Nancy Pelosi, the Obamas on their zillion dollar property on all white Martha's Vineyard at 79 Turkeyland Dr., Edgartown, MA (which whatsmyelevation.com shows is 3 FEET above, sea level, or a thousand and one other assorted Hollywood Learjet leftists.
There might surely be a lot of criticizing that is valid onto Cuban regime, but discarding the evil that the US empire has inflicted upon that country, and Latin America as a whole, completely misses the point.
Of all people who could do this criticizing, someone who has seen and felt the power of the empire upon himself (think twitter files and beyond) and then failing to consider its effects upon some other entity is just a typical US-european viewpoint: "the government went full communist China-like all covid relayed issues" and then, thinking that Mexico 1913, Guatemala 1954, Chile 1973, Lybia 2011, et cetera are mere Banana Republic failures.
This very crisis should, at least, highlight the fact that all the oppression the US regime has done upon their non-compliant citizens covid-wise is a mild version of what they can and do to a lot of countries with non-compliant governments.
"History has demonstrated time and again that command economies (in which all property is owned by the state ) DO NOT WORK. Under such regimes, competence and expertise evaporate."
And yet the USSR, despite staggering losses suffered in WWII, and facing a hostile post-war alliance that threatens them even to this day, still managed to counter the US ICBM threat, launch a fleet of nuclear submarines, develop superior military aircraft and put the first satellite and the first man in orbit.
THEN, after being subjected to a decade of rapacious western bank sponsored so-called free enterprise, they managed to regroup under a reformation of state controlled enterprise to become the most technically advanced military power on the planet - that is unless you think capitalism pulled that off and the ultimate owner of the defence industry isn't the Russian state.
Speaking of competence and expertise, Russia recently announced their intention to abandon the Bologna system and return to the Soviet system of education with its heavy emphasis on STEM and notable lack of women's and trans-gender studies.
I'm not arguing the case for state enterprise so much as pointing out that the precept of command economy vs. ... what? capitalism? free enterprise? ... is a false dichotomy. Both at their root are command structures, it's simply a question of who is in command. The people via their constituted government, or the owners of private capital? Corruption can exist in either of course, but it's much harder for private capital to corrupt a government when there isn't any private capital, or where it at least can't accumulate to a threatening degree.
I think the real difference has more to do with how socially cohesive one's culture is vs. what form of production is in effect. Obviously some ratio of the two will prevail, depending on historic and material conditions, provided of course the people are in control and are able to hold their position. If not, you get what you see today. A small entitled elite running roughshod over everyone else.
"When socialism comes to the Sahara, there will even be a shortage of sand"
- Old Polish proverb under communism
If possible, please visit and/or take photos/video of actual Cuban hospitals. Not the tourist ones that the likes of Michael Moore visit. But the ones the actual citizens have access to. Where you need to bring your own medicine, bed sheets, etc. Where people wait months for simple procedures unless their relatives in Miami can send them money and medicine, etc.
"History has demonstrated time and again that command economies (in which all property is owned by the state ) DO NOT WORK. "
Are you referring to Cuba, or to Venezuelifornia? Maybe the People's Socialist Hellhole of New York? Perhaps Zimbabwillinois? No? The probably the WEF command economy by all those self-congratulatory idiot savants there, right?
Agree. And if we look around the United States is headed rapidly in the same direction. When we allow disturbed humans to become our leaders we eventually reap what we sow.
It will be a sad day, too, when the old, classic cars - a veritable time warp - are replaced forever by modern automotive trash.
And the US is headed to a place below Cuba on the good-places-to-live list thanks to the current regime of numbskull leftists.
I Love Cuba. But I thoroughly despise the War-Bankers who’ve bought our elections, policymakers and war policies for the past two hundred years. Wars are such Bloody Frauds--all of them.
Stop the embargo
A great example of the consequences of the kind of top-down directivie control which certain powers now seek to impose on a global scale. Import to have this historical perspective!
I offer a another perspective on getting beyond both this communist approach to controlling everything, and the destructiveness of unbridled captialism here:
michaelwarden.substack.com/p/the-failed-mantra-of-the-french-revolution.
And a view on the emerging 'new paradigm' which will lead beyond both descructive polarities here:
michaelwarden.substack.com/p/a-cure-for-21st-century-madness
Yes, when the state owns everything, it all goes to Hell. Because most significantly, it owns YOU, body, mind and soul. There is no such thing as Individual Rights in collectivist societies, because the Individual is subjugated to society and obliterated for all intents and purposes.
To the degree you personally are guaranteed the fruits of your labor, you will be motivated from within, to work hard. Why should you put your efforts into creating a business, if it, or the money you earn from it, or your freedom to run it as you think it should be run, are all stolen from you? (Isn't that slavery, with invisible chains??)
Unless your mind is free from force, you will not be able to create. That is just the nature of "man, as rational being." Thoughts, the creation of new ideas, reasoning things through--these must be done first by individuals. And THIS is the foundational reason as to why tyrannies of every flavor, create only misery for their citizens.