Rendering unto Caesar: Liberal anti-Communism and rabid anti-communism

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

During a sojourn behind the Iron Curtain before the collapse of the Soviet Union, I was surprised to see how similar East Germany was to the US. Why was this the case? Was it because the US was under Communist domination, or was it because the USSR was just another Capitalist overlord? An ignorant American would favor the former conclusion, while a scholar might tend to support the latter notion. In any case it is clear that Communism was a far cry from communism, just as Republicanism is anything but republicanism.

A Mormon John Bircher who has recently been brought forward as the intellectual puppet master behind the moronic Glenn Beck, W. Cleon Skousen, gives us a key to the capitalist lurking behind the facade of human progress. In his fascinating analysis of Communism, The Naked Communist, Skousen lists some of the agenda items to destroy America. Number 38 on the list is interesting:

Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand or treat.

Thomas Szasz remarked that American psychiatrists criticized Soviet psychiatrists for hospitalizing political dissidents while doing the same thing themselves. Szasz has thoroughly debunked the psychiatric profession as a pseudo-science just as left intellectuals have debunked the priestly aspects of Marxism-Leninism. This agenda item in favor of psychiatry also explains why a Leninist I met defended the profession.

Skousen makes some very good arguments for how Soviet Communism betrayed the original goal of human progress. It quickly degenerated into Czarism by another name. What he failed to see was how American Republicanism is British Imperialism by another name. Skousen belongs to Caesar because he sees himself as free despite the bondage of his deliberate ignorance. As he appears to promote popular sovereignty, his students favor despotism of the most vicious breed. Skousen was a liberal anti-Communist, but he was fodder for rabid anti-communism. The latter can be held responsible for much of what is wrong with America today because of its tendency to turn America into a thug nation.

How do you distinguish between ideas such as communism and republicanism vs. their supposed manifestations in the forms of Communism and Republicanism?

Comments

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Does it ever bother you that you are writing these treatises for an audience almost entirely devoid of adherents to or students of whatever the hell perspective on cosmology and epistemology you hint at constantly but never explain? That almost none of these axiomatic statements you stitch together into 90% of your content makes the least bit of sense to anyone because you've never bothered to lay down the least bit of explanation for any of it?

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

Well tried, but nah. It won't work.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

I remain a perpetual optimist.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

Of course, as you can see below, underlankers follows a similar method...

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Actually my comment was a more verbose means of saying "This is bullshit, Sophia." I don't know how you misunderstood it thus.

Thank you.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

You have confirmed the success of my prose.

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

I was surprised to see how similar East Germany was to the US.

yup, if everyone hadn't been speaking german, you'd swear you were back in san francisco.

Actually...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... I was living in New Jersey at the time.

Re: Actually...

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

now you're scaring me.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

I loled.

I hoped...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... you would.

In all seriousness.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Many would argue that the Soviets and thier sattelites were not "true communists" and the the US is not "true capitalists". With out a clear definitions for the above terms the only thing that your post demonstrates is a woeful naivety on your part.

"Oh look! East germans live in houses and use electricity, they're just like us!"

The Berlin Wall was built for a reason.

not pure enough?

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

Slavoj Zizek makes a really great point in this video, in reply to a "pure capitalism" guy who, like many laissez-faire capitalists, argues that the system failed because it was not pure enough. Zizek turns his argument around on him - noting that in Slovenia, where Zizek grew up, there were communists who would say the same thing - "the system failed because it wasn't pure communism." His argument on this topic, I think, makes it very clear that the system will never be "pure enough" and will always push people in a direction that can lead to greed and dangerous

http://streamingdocumentary.com/2011/03/05/slavoj-zizekliving-times-streaming/

start watching at around minute 3 and watch till about minute 5

Re: not pure enough?

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

So what you're saying is that people will act like people regardless of the "_____ism" involved?

Wierd. ;)

Poop.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

I love Slavoj Zizek.

Here is a video of him talking about toilets that is somewhat relevant to the topic at hand:

Re: In all seriousness.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

My observations had nothing to do with living in houses and using electricity. I compared the developmental level of East Germany with that of West Germany. East Germany lagged about as far behind as did the US. There some areas of exception that fascinated me such as the continued use of steam locomotives and the use of manual labor in some jobs that have been mechanized in the US. The quality of public housing appeared to be roughly the same, except that the East German tenements appeared to be a bit better maintained.

Re: In all seriousness.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

You should know better than most that technical developement does not a civilization make.

As stated above, there's a reason the Berlin wall was built, and to ignore the vast social inequities and violence inherent in the Soviet system shows either blindness or stupidity on your part.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

It might be worth reflecting that for all the critiques of US failures of de-Nazification that the Stasi inherited Nazi torture apparati and torture chambers and made very good use of them. While the Stalinist regime with its NKVD and concentration camps that replaced the Nazi one with its murder factories was an improvement only in lacking murder factories over what it succeeded. Claiming that the NATO states were in any way equal with those of the Warsaw Pact is absurd. The USA did not level Paris when France flounced from NATO, the USSR OTOH.....

[peamasii.livejournal.com]

OT: Now I realize why the USA hate the French commonly. To have them turn their back on NATO in the middle of the cold war, under Charles de Gaulle who was helped in the Resistance by the US, must have been the ultimate flip-off. Thanks for making that comparison.

So, which...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... Warsaw Pact capital did the Soviets level?

Re: So, which...

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Well, there's Prague.

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

And it's still not Thursday.

What...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... is so special about Thursday?

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

It comes before Friday, duh.