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“Lenin called them "useful idiots," those people living in liberal democracies who by giving moral and material support to a totalitarian ideology in effect were braiding the rope that would hang them. Why people who enjoyed freedom and prosperity worked passionately to destroy both is a fascinating question, one still with us today.”
~ Professor Bruce Thornton, Cal State Fresno
I seldom watch TV anymore, other than sporting events; I have no use for a woeful medium that so willfully damaged our beloved America and continues to do so with amoral programming and station to station disinformation called the network news. The other night, while channel surfing during a "Monday Night Football" time out, I happened upon “Boston Legal” just in time to hear one of the characters call those Americans who didn't vote for Barrack Hussein Obama, idiots. Idiots!
The fifty percent of America who see this man for what he is are idiots in the minds of the smug fools of Hollywood, the most dysfunctional community on the planet. When you think of it, it makes perfect sense that a group of modern day useful idiots, effete snobs who spend their lives peddling style over substance would be enamored by and vote for Obama, the quintessential embodiment of style over substance. Oh yes, we are the idiots, not the histrionic Oprah Winfrey, the orgasmic Chris Mathews, the incomprehensible babbler Sean Penn nor the bile-spewing Jeremiah Wright and Keith Olberman. No, we are idiots because we love America and the ideals that made her strong.
We are idiots but they are the intelligentsia because they had the vision to allow themselves to be led by a media devoid of any objectivity. They alone saw the wisdom of appeasing a European faction that hates Am...
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... it’s the same global world of financial equality envisioned by Karl Marx. Idiot that I am, I see this as inconsistent with our freedom to pursue life, liberty and happiness, and I see the same philosophy that destroyed the Soviet Union and has Europe awash in a sea of entitlements and mired in a socialist morass. I am clearly too dimwitted to understand how this will be good for America and her citizens, perhaps Charlie Gibson can explain it to me.
© Peter J. Hynes 2008
Works Cited
“Lenin called them "useful idiots," those people living in liberal democracies who by giving moral and material support to a totalitarian ideology in effect were braiding the rope that would hang them. Why people who enjoyed freedom and prosperity worked passionately to destroy both is a fascinating question, one still with us today.”
~ Professor Bruce Thornton, Cal State Fresno
Joseph Stalin said, “Ideas are far more powerful than guns. We don 't let our people have guns. Why should we let them have ideas?”. Stalin was a dictator of the USSR from 1929 to 1953. Under his dictatorship, the Soviet Union began to transform from a poor economy to an industrial and military based one. While still a teen, Stalin secretly read Karl Marx 's book the “Communist Manifesto”, and became more interested in his teachings. When Stalin gained power, he ruled his nations using terror and fear, eliminating those who did not comply with his governance.
“The Sources of Soviet Conduct” Foreign Affairs, 1947, explains the difficulty of summarizing Soviet ideology. For more than 50 years, the Soviet concept held the Russian nations hypnotized, discontented, unhappy, and despondent confined to a very limited Czarist political order. Hence, the rebel support of a bloody Revolution, as a means to “social betterment” (Kennan, 567). Bolshevism was conceptualized as “ideological and moral, not geopolitical or strategic”. Hoover declares that… “five or six great social philosophies were struggling for ascendancy” (Leffler, The Specter of Communism, 20).
Under a backdrop of systematic fear and terror, the Stalinist juggernaut flourished. Stalin’s purges, otherwise known as the “Great Terror”, grew from his obsession and desire for sole dictatorship, marking a period of extreme persecution and oppression in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s. “The purges did not merely remove potential enemies. They also raised up a new ruling elite which Stalin had reason to think he would find more dependable.” (Historian David Christian, 1994). While Stalin purged virtually all his potential enemies, he not only profited from removing his long-term opponents, but in doing so, also caused fear in future ones. This created a party that had virtually no opposition, a new ruling elite that would be unstoppable, and in turn negatively impacted a range of sections such as the Communist Party, the people of Russia and the progress in the Soviet community, as well as the military in late 1930 Soviet society.
This essay “Idiot Nation” is seen as a voice for the people. The author Michael Moore is communicating what the people think to the government. He gives for examples of how to take action. This only emphasizes his argument.
The famed political author George Orwell once said “I write […] because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention . . .” (Orwell 3). This philosophy is at the heart of his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four in which he strives to reveal the dangers of communism through the extreme totalitarian world of Nineteen Eighty-Four. The principal danger which Orwell presents is that “communism [is] not a revolutionary force, but instead [is] a new, dangerous form of totalitarianism” (Rossi 207) in which the government is stifling society to gain control and power at the cost of its citizen’s freedom, and humanity. There are
When most people hear the name Joseph Stalin, they usually associate the name with a man who was part of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and was responsible for the deaths of millions of people. He was willingly to do anything to improve the power of the Soviet Union’s economy and military, even if it meant executing tens of millions of innocent people (Frankforter, A. Daniel., and W. M. Spellman 655). In chapter three of Sheila Fitzpatrick’s book, Everyday Stalinism, she argues that since citizens believed the propaganda of “a radiant future” (67), they were able to be manipulated by the Party in the transformation of the Soviet Union. This allowed the Soviet government to expand its power, which ultimately was very disastrous for the people.
...ssical conservatives are scared of it, but they do know that is needed with some restrictions, or as modern liberals would say, “safety nets, lots and lots of safety nets.” Classical liberals love the free market system because of what it can do for the economy and society.
The great wonder is how did a country as great as America have such a great gap between the haves and the have-nots. Look no further than the wonderful works of Wall Street and Washington D.C. Both of these have done perfectly fine that past few decades compared to the rest of America. Why is that? Because our government makes laws that are in favor of big banks and Wall Street. What our government is saying is that unless you were born into money, ride the coat tails of the Wall Street pigs, or work with them in order to pass these laws, you’re out of luck. Better luck next life.
Similarly, Stalin used propaganda and extreme nationalism to brainwash the peoples of Russia. He channeled their beliefs into a passion for Soviet ideals and a love of Stalin. In both cases, love for anything but the Party is the biggest threat to the regime. The stability of the Party and Stalin’s regime directly depended upon loyalty to the government above all else. By drawing upon the close relationships between the two Orwellian societies, we can examine just how dangerous love is to the Party.
This opposing perspective follows the philosophical viewpoint of leaders such as Hitler, Mussolini, Lenin, and Stalin. Fascism, which is the extreme shift on the right wing of the spectrum and an anti-liberal belief with a reactionary-authoritarian system of government, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini had both the government and freedom of Germany and Italy eliminated to obtain total control. Fascism rather incorporates the idea of control, power and eradication of both interdependence and independence which disputes the principles of having collectivism and individualism side by side, thus caused dystopia -- World War Two, as caused by the fascist belief of Hitler. On the extreme left side of the spectrum, is communism or Marxism. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels co-wrote the book, “The Communist Manifesto” which described communism as something to eliminate class warfare, with the dispute between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, as an instance -- greatly valued equality as its ultimate goal. Nonetheless, leaders such as Lenin and Stalin greatly stretched the radical idea of communism and took it to its extremes, making the Russian government in their control through revolutionary means. In this perspective both fascism and communism are similar in terms of rejecting the ideas of having individualism and collectivism co-exist. Relatively, radical and reactionary leaders would rather have everything in their control in lieu of having the government or the citizens have the power, therefore, either individual or collective freedom is
Ascher, Abraham. 2012. Was Hitler a Riddle? Western Democracies and National Socialism. California: Standford University Press.
According to most historians, “history is told by the victors”, which would explain why most people equate communism with Vladimir Lenin. He was the backbone of Russia’s communist revolution, and the first leader of history’s largest communist government. It is not known, or discussed by most, that Lenin made many reforms to the original ideals possessed by many communists during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He revised Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles’ theories to fit the so-called ‘backwardness’ of the Russian Empire. Lenin’s reforms were necessary to carry out a socialist revolution in Russia, and the contributions he made drastically changed the course of history. It can be assumed that, the Soviet Union would not have been as powerful if it was not for Lenin’s initial advocacy of violence and tight organization.
The personality of authoritarians will always exert more influence on its nation’s policies compared to a democratic leader, where the power is shared. This renders Stalin’s behavior and actions more vital to historical explanation. (Kleinman, p.390) Stalin also had more power over his policies and never experienced domestic pressure, like US leaders did. We do not know if it was because of social alienation, technological innovation or economic desperation that made people susceptible to great authoritarians that resulted in tyranny. (Gaddis, p.293) Gaddis argues that he “find[s] it increasingly difficult, given what we know now, to imagine the Soviet Union or the Cold War without Stalin.” (Gaddis, p.293) Observing further that there was no
Today, more than ever, there is great debate over politics and which economic system works the best. How needs and wants should be allocated, and who should do the allocating, is one of the most highly debated topics in our current society. Be it communist dictators defending a command economy, free market conservatives defending a market economy, or European liberals defending socialism, everyone has an opinion. While all systems have flaws and merits, it must be decided which system is the best for all citizens. When looking at both the financial well being of all citizens, it is clear that market economies fall short on ensuring that the basic needs of all citizens are met. If one looks at liberty and individual freedom, it is evident that command economies tend to oppress their citizens. Therefore, socialism, which allows for basic needs to be met and personal freedoms to be upheld, is the best economic system for all of a country’s citizens.
From the beginning days of the printing press to the always evolving internet of present day, the media has greatly evolved and changed over the years. No one can possibly overstate the influential power of the new media of television on the rest of the industry. Television continues to influence the media, which recently an era of comedic television shows that specialize in providing “fake news” has captivated. The groundbreaking The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and its spin-off The Colbert Report have successfully attracted the youth demographic and have become the new era’s leading political news source. By parodying news companies and satirizing the government, “fake news” has affected the media, the government, and its audience in such a way that Bill Moyers has claimed “you simply can’t understand American politics in the new millennium without The Daily Show,” that started it all (PBS).