@alan fraser said:
It may seem an obvious point, but how exactly is a video over 20 years old relevant to the world today? That was from another political age; it might as well be an interview with Albert Speer.
There may be a few ageing die-hard commies lurking in the woodwork or on university campuses somewhere, but they are as irrelevant an ineffectual as this completely anachronistic name-calling.
Soviet-style socialism is dead and discredited; outperformed and undermined by western capitalism to the point where it simply imploded. Everyone with any sense and any influence in the west knows that. They were even having to import advanced office equipment by the backdoor, just so that they could get hold of the silicon chips and reprogram them for their missile guidance systems.
This is just pure bogeyman under the bed stuff. We'll be getting scare stories on Islamofascists and taqiyya next.
Just to be clear, I have never said that I believe Obama is a Marxist.
As I have made clear in other threads, I believe Obama and McCain are simply political careerists.
The video clip I provided a link to was to show how political careerists can be "useful idiots".
20 year old videos can be just as interesting as literature produced hundreds or thousands of years ago. The Greeks and Romans produced much that is still relevant today. We can discuss what we believe to be relevant. But just because something is old doesn't make it irrelevant. And yes, even watching an interview with Albert Speer can provide useful insights.
I would suggest that Western captialism won only the economic war against "Soviet-style socialism" (call it what it was, communism), but in the West the left won the political and cultural struggle. That Soviet-style socialism as an economic system is dead and discredited is true, but the recent debacle with the Western capitalist system would hardly suggest it to be a great alternative. Like the Soviet economic system it came very close to imploding. In fact, you could argue that it did implode and that it is only being kept up and running with smoke and mirrors.
No political, economic or cultural system lasts forever.
They are all replaced by, or evolve in to something new.
There are indeed many die-hard commies still lurking in our universities.
There are also a surprising number of leading members of New Labour who also used to be members of communist and other assorted extreme left wing movements.
Oh, I know, I know, they all grew up and left behind those silly childish thoughts and became moderates.
Amazing isn't it how only left-wing extremists can reform and become pillars of the establishment. Similar to how only left-wing terrorists can become University lecturers.
Of course, only nasty, small minded, ring-wing bigots point these things out.
Because of political correctness (a cultural and political victory for the left) I will avoid going on to discuss the issue of Islam.
Regards
Mr S
