Author Topic: Victims of Communism Day 2018  (Read 1501 times)

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Offline EasyAce

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Victims of Communism Day 2018
« on: May 01, 2018, 04:15:17 pm »
May Day is a fitting time to commemorate the tens of millions of victims of this murderous ideology
By Ilya Somin
http://reason.com/volokh/2018/05/01/victims-of-communism-day-2018

Quote
Today is May Day. Since 2007, I have advocated using this date as an international Victims of Communism Day. I outlined the rationale for this proposal (which was not my original idea) in my very first post on the subject:

May Day began as a holiday for socialists and labor union activists, not just communists. But over time, the date was taken over by the Soviet Union and other communist regimes and used as a propaganda tool to prop up their [authority]. I suggest that we instead use it as a day to commemorate those regimes' millions of victims. The authoritative Black Book of Communism estimates the total at 80 to 100 million dead, greater than that caused by all other twentieth century tyrannies combined. We appropriately have a Holocaust Memorial Day. It is equally appropriate to commemorate the victims of the twentieth century's other great totalitarian tyranny. And May Day is the most fitting day to do so….

Our comparative neglect of communist crimes has serious costs. Victims of Communism Day can serve the dual purpose of appropriately commemorating the millions of victims, and diminishing the likelihood that such atrocities will recur. Just as Holocaust Memorial Day and other similar events promote awareness of the dangers of racism, anti-Semitism, and radical nationalism, so Victims of Communism Day can increase awareness of the dangers of left-wing forms of totalitarianism, and government domination of the economy and civil society . . .


"The question of who is right is a small one, indeed, beside the question of what is right."---Albert Jay Nock.

Fake news---news you don't like or don't want to hear.

Offline Bigun

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Re: Victims of Communism Day 2018
« Reply #1 on: May 01, 2018, 04:36:23 pm »
“The proletariat will use its political supremacy top wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organized as the ruling class; and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible. Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property, and on the conditions of bourgeois production; by means of measures, therefore, which appear economically insufficient and untenable, but which, in the course of the movement, outstrip themselves, necessitate further inroads upon the old social order, and are unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionizing the mode of production. These measures will of course be different in different countries. Nevertheless in the most advanced countries, the following will be pretty generally applicable.
   
1.   Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
   
2.   A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
   
3.   Abolition of all right of inheritance.
   
4.   Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
   
5.   Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
   
6.   Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
   
7.   Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
   
8.   Equal liability of all to labor. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
   
9.   Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
   
10.   Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, &c., &c.
   
When, in the course of development, class distinctions have disappeared, and all production has been concentrated in the hands of a vast association of the whole nation, the public power will lose its political character. Political power, properly so called, is merely the organized power of one class for oppressing another. If the proletariat during its contest with the bourgeoisie is compelled, by the force of circumstances, to organize itself as a class, if, by means of a revolution, it makes itself the ruling class, and, as such, sweeps away by force the old conditions of production, then it will, along with these conditions, have swept away the conditions for the existence of class antagonisms and of classes generally, and will thereby have abolished its own supremacy as a class. In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.”

Communist Manifesto, Second Section (the one where he instructs fellow travelers as to how to take over developed countries), toward the end.


https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch02.htm
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

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Online Lando Lincoln

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Re: Victims of Communism Day 2018
« Reply #2 on: May 01, 2018, 04:42:13 pm »
For Later
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Offline Slide Rule

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Re: Victims of Communism Day 2018
« Reply #3 on: May 01, 2018, 06:04:41 pm »
May Day is a fitting time to commemorate the tens of millions of victims of this murderous ideology
By Ilya Somin
http://reason.com/volokh/2018/05/01/victims-of-communism-day-2018

Quote
Today is May Day. Since 2007, I have advocated using this date as an international Victims of Communism Day. I outlined the rationale for this proposal (which was not my original idea) in my very first post on the subject:

May Day began as a holiday for socialists and labor union activists, not just communists. But over time, the date was taken over by the Soviet Union and other communist regimes and used as a propaganda tool to prop up their [authority]. I suggest that we instead use it as a day to commemorate those regimes' millions of victims. The authoritative Black Book of Communism estimates the total at 80 to 100 million dead, greater than that caused by all other twentieth century tyrannies combined. We appropriately have a Holocaust Memorial Day. It is equally appropriate to commemorate the victims of the twentieth century's other great totalitarian tyranny. And May Day is the most fitting day to do so….

Our comparative neglect of communist crimes has serious costs. Victims of Communism Day can serve the dual purpose of appropriately commemorating the millions of victims, and diminishing the likelihood that such atrocities will recur. Just as Holocaust Memorial Day and other similar events promote awareness of the dangers of racism, anti-Semitism, and radical nationalism, so Victims of Communism Day can increase awareness of the dangers of left-wing forms of totalitarianism, and government domination of the economy and civil society . . .




The Black Book of Communism referenced in a post.

Three Cheers!

It is an excellent read and depressing to see so many
promoting communist theory.

Bodies stacked like cords of wood.


:)
« Last Edit: May 01, 2018, 06:07:04 pm by Slide Rule »
White, American, MAGA, 3% Neanderthal, and 97% Extreme Right Wing Conservative.

Recommended

J Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson
E Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
N Davies, Europe: A History
R Feynman, The Feynman Lectures on Physics
R Penrose, The Road To Reality & The Emperor's New Mind
K Popper, An Open Society and Its Enemies & The Logic of Scientific Discovery
A Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, & Everything he wrote

Offline EasyAce

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Re: Victims of Communism Day 2018
« Reply #4 on: May 01, 2018, 06:26:46 pm »



The Black Book of Communism referenced in a post.

Three Cheers!

It is an excellent read and depressing to see so many
promoting communist theory.

Bodies stacked like cords of wood.


:)
@Slide Rule
It's likewise thrilling to see Edmund Burke referenced in a tag line. There are people around here who are inordinately proud of their ignorance of Burke while I sit ashamed at my incomplete knowledge of him.


"The question of who is right is a small one, indeed, beside the question of what is right."---Albert Jay Nock.

Fake news---news you don't like or don't want to hear.

Offline Slide Rule

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Re: Victims of Communism Day 2018
« Reply #5 on: May 01, 2018, 06:33:18 pm »
@Slide Rule
It's likewise thrilling to see Edmund Burke referenced in a tag line. There are people around here who are inordinately proud of their ignorance of Burke while I sit ashamed at my incomplete knowledge of him.


It is easily remedied.

Go to a Library, or better to a bookstore.
His work is a wonder, and goes down smooth.

Cheers!


:)
White, American, MAGA, 3% Neanderthal, and 97% Extreme Right Wing Conservative.

Recommended

J Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson
E Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
N Davies, Europe: A History
R Feynman, The Feynman Lectures on Physics
R Penrose, The Road To Reality & The Emperor's New Mind
K Popper, An Open Society and Its Enemies & The Logic of Scientific Discovery
A Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, & Everything he wrote

Offline EasyAce

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Re: Victims of Communism Day 2018
« Reply #6 on: May 01, 2018, 06:59:07 pm »

It is easily remedied.

Go to a Library, or better to a bookstore.
His work is a wonder, and goes down smooth.

Cheers!


:)
*laughing* I have his complete works, I just fear my knowledge and understanding of them isn't where it should be just yet. But the fun is in the revisitings.


"The question of who is right is a small one, indeed, beside the question of what is right."---Albert Jay Nock.

Fake news---news you don't like or don't want to hear.

Offline Slide Rule

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Re: Victims of Communism Day 2018
« Reply #7 on: May 01, 2018, 09:28:46 pm »
*laughing* I have his complete works, I just fear my knowledge and understanding of them isn't where it should be just yet. But the fun is in the revisitings.


Sorry. Seems I spoke too soon.

Certainly a revisit can extract more knowledge.

Have you also read Solzhenitsyn?

Anything you would recommend? I read everyday.



:)
White, American, MAGA, 3% Neanderthal, and 97% Extreme Right Wing Conservative.

Recommended

J Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson
E Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
N Davies, Europe: A History
R Feynman, The Feynman Lectures on Physics
R Penrose, The Road To Reality & The Emperor's New Mind
K Popper, An Open Society and Its Enemies & The Logic of Scientific Discovery
A Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, & Everything he wrote

Offline EasyAce

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Re: Victims of Communism Day 2018
« Reply #8 on: May 01, 2018, 09:31:02 pm »

Sorry. Seems I spoke too soon.

Certainly a revisit can extract more knowledge.

Have you also read Solzhenitsyn?

Anything you would recommend? I read everyday.



:)
Yes I have.

The Gulag Archipelago, The Oak and the Calf, Cancer Ward, and The First Circle remain favourites.


"The question of who is right is a small one, indeed, beside the question of what is right."---Albert Jay Nock.

Fake news---news you don't like or don't want to hear.

Offline Slide Rule

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Re: Victims of Communism Day 2018
« Reply #9 on: May 01, 2018, 09:38:51 pm »
Yes I have.

The Gulag Archipelago, The Oak and the Calf, Cancer Ward, and The First Circle remain favourites.






Agreed. I have read most of his work. Stopped about half way in Gulag Archipelago Vol 2.
The pain described was just too much to  see.

I did like his commentary upon being released. It was much like the arrest.

You must be an old fart like myself. Good to keep those brain cells active.

I retired at 50 to buy my time. I have been a voracious reader ever since.


History seems to be my favorite topic along with espionage.

:)


« Last Edit: May 01, 2018, 09:43:46 pm by Slide Rule »
White, American, MAGA, 3% Neanderthal, and 97% Extreme Right Wing Conservative.

Recommended

J Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson
E Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
N Davies, Europe: A History
R Feynman, The Feynman Lectures on Physics
R Penrose, The Road To Reality & The Emperor's New Mind
K Popper, An Open Society and Its Enemies & The Logic of Scientific Discovery
A Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, & Everything he wrote

Offline EasyAce

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Re: Victims of Communism Day 2018
« Reply #10 on: May 01, 2018, 09:56:50 pm »
You must be an old fart like myself. Good to keep those brain cells active.
I'm a mere 62. Our limousines have miles to go before we sleep. ;)


"The question of who is right is a small one, indeed, beside the question of what is right."---Albert Jay Nock.

Fake news---news you don't like or don't want to hear.

Offline Slide Rule

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Re: Victims of Communism Day 2018
« Reply #11 on: May 01, 2018, 10:06:18 pm »

Have you by a decade plus.

I now inquire about my doctors health.
My primary physician runs 8 miles to work.

No limousine here. I walk everyday and read
everyday.

To your health. Hope you make it to old fart.

:)
White, American, MAGA, 3% Neanderthal, and 97% Extreme Right Wing Conservative.

Recommended

J Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson
E Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
N Davies, Europe: A History
R Feynman, The Feynman Lectures on Physics
R Penrose, The Road To Reality & The Emperor's New Mind
K Popper, An Open Society and Its Enemies & The Logic of Scientific Discovery
A Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, & Everything he wrote

Offline InHeavenThereIsNoBeer

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Re: Victims of Communism Day 2018
« Reply #12 on: May 01, 2018, 10:55:32 pm »

Sorry. Seems I spoke too soon.

Certainly a revisit can extract more knowledge.

Have you also read Solzhenitsyn?

Anything you would recommend? I read everyday.



:)

I found Autopsy for an Empire by Dmitri Volkogonov to be a great description on the implementation of Socialism in the USSR.  I wish they'd use it in schools.
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Offline Bigun

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Re: Victims of Communism Day 2018
« Reply #13 on: May 01, 2018, 10:59:47 pm »
I found Autopsy for an Empire by Dmitri Volkogonov to be a great description on the implementation of Socialism in the USSR.  I wish they'd use it in schools.

Why would they do that?  They are working like hell to implement it here!
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
- J. R. R. Tolkien

Offline EasyAce

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Re: Victims of Communism Day 2018
« Reply #14 on: May 01, 2018, 11:24:00 pm »
I found Autopsy for an Empire by Dmitri Volkogonov to be a great description on the implementation of Socialism in the USSR.  I wish they'd use it in schools.
That and Malcolm Muggeridge's Winter in Moscow.


"The question of who is right is a small one, indeed, beside the question of what is right."---Albert Jay Nock.

Fake news---news you don't like or don't want to hear.

Offline endicom

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Re: Victims of Communism Day 2018
« Reply #15 on: May 01, 2018, 11:30:51 pm »

May 1: Victims of Communism Day | Ten Films to Honor the Dead

http://missliberty.com/may-1-victims-of-communism-day-ten-films-to-honor-the-dead/

Offline Slide Rule

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Re: Victims of Communism Day 2018
« Reply #16 on: May 02, 2018, 02:42:01 am »
I found Autopsy for an Empire by Dmitri Volkogonov to be a great description on the implementation of Socialism in the USSR.  I wish they'd use it in schools.


When I finish Grant by Ron Chernow I will read it.

I am always looking for books and authors. Thanks.

I'll put Malcolm Muggeridge, Winter in Moscow on my list also.

:)
« Last Edit: May 02, 2018, 02:47:09 am by Slide Rule »
White, American, MAGA, 3% Neanderthal, and 97% Extreme Right Wing Conservative.

Recommended

J Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson
E Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
N Davies, Europe: A History
R Feynman, The Feynman Lectures on Physics
R Penrose, The Road To Reality & The Emperor's New Mind
K Popper, An Open Society and Its Enemies & The Logic of Scientific Discovery
A Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, & Everything he wrote