From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Tue May 27 2003 - 23:02:15 MDT
Ron writes
> lcorbin@tsoft.com writes:
> > I do note that except for the Nazis, none of the usual suspects
> > we associate with the right-wing---from the KKK to the militia
> > movements---have anything to do with socialism.
>
> Hasn't that got more to do with the in-fighting between various brands
> of socialism and the socialist tendency to relabel anything that becomes
> unsavory in the socialist camp?
What do you mean, for example? It has seemed to me that it
was a particularly *Russian* trait to rename things upon the
slightest change in political wind. Volgograd and St. Petersburg
are only the examples of cities! They rename roads and buildings
constantly, as if something in their minds cannot stand being
reminded of what they consider evil.
Of course, Americans are not free of the same impulses by any
means! I think that there was a short stretch of freeway named
the "Richard M. Nixon" freeway in southern California, until the
Watergate fiasco occurred, and the freeway renamed. Then,
recently, the democrats almost held a convention in building
that---historical analysis revealed---had been named in honor
of someone with Klu Klux Klan associations! (Hmm. I'm really
puzzled by this, because almost everything in West Virginia is
named after Senator Byrd, and he had KKK associations.)
Also, perhaps there is something in *totalitarian* thinking---
as opposed to merely authoritarian rule---that demands that
all associations with the Opposition be expunged. So if we
remove the Russian and the totalitarian components of any
socialist movement, does what remains have this tendency to,
as you write, "relabel anything that becomes unsavory"?
Lee
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