A Short 56 Years Later....
“We cannot expect the Americans to jump from capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving Americans small doses of socialism until they suddenly awake to find they have Communism.” ~ Nikita Khrushchev, 1959
... not "we're going to attack and kill and bury you," per se.
But, of course, the MSM didn't play it that way back then or since...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFaCytKX...
It took Rand several books for that autopsy. We need new memes that speak to the masses who think socialism is just fine. Let's find or write such a compact "handbook for dummies" without tainting it with today's "isms". Surely the Gulch is populated with talented writers equal to this task.
[The comments on this thread are so tattered and out of sequence that it's hard to see continuity. It's like hopscotch.]
You asked elsewhere what we can do (or are willing to do). I made a suggestion that we write a layman's booklet in simple language, omitting any isms because they are all tinged with emotional undercurrents and associations that could distort our message.
I'm thinking of a short, popular non-fiction book like The Secret (or The Prophet, or Jonathan Livingston Seagull), only non-mystical, that would set out Objectivist principles and values in easy-to-digest, friendly and positive language and how they are the answer to the woes of the world.
My point is, we have to get our ideas (memes) to the general culture, the Oprah crowd, the blue-collar guys, the "folks" whose English is not all that good..
This 2-minute video someone posted a while back is a good start: https://youtu.be/nT_RpzYohdI
Altogether?
Hey, anyone listening out there?
Seems my voice can only echo off the walls of the Gulch.
Too many people do not care.
They. Just. Don't. Care.
In the next scene, a boo-hooing Boner for a house speaker flees down a hall.
Meanwhile, I lift my tail over Dingy Harry and Botox Nancy, roaring, "Stick around. I deal with your kind in a short!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwMOC5i2...
Look at what ARI (http://aynrand.org) is doing with their books for students and teachers' guides free programs. Look at what The Undercurrent is doing in reaching students.
Look at what Alex Epstein is doing with his book and lecturing with his Moral Case for Fossil Fuel. Read it, learn the arguments, if you agree, tell everyone you know. Alex has done a brilliant job of educating himself and presenting a most clear and rational case for the facts of this matter.
Be part of the solution rather than just shouting at the dark.
I wish I was born in May. Flowers. Butterflies. Not all that hot yet. Tax crap put up and out of sight.
That always bothered me. One of the many reasons I resolved to leave the east and go west - yes, as a young man. But now it's everywhere.
It reminds me of this from an "American."
Norman Thomas, the Socialist Party candidate for President of the U.S.
The quote is from a speech he made in 1944.
“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of “liberalism,” they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.”
“I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party… The Democrat Party has adopted our platform.”
Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 to December 19, 1968) was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America.
Regards,
O.A.
The frog thing may not be true, but Nikita was spot on about socialism/communism.
I just added that quote to my "quotes" page on my site..
Thanks!
We have the Protective Echelon in place and electronic block wardens. Not so far fetched a notion.
To be safe just practice the salute and remember to say "We serve the party Comrade!"
Me? Chuckle - I'll be dead by then or close to it. You'll find me buried in Bight ME comrade!
My thought is we can take problems seriously without giving into paranoia. We can say that some problem, i.e. domestic violence, pollution, armed robbery, is less of a problem in our society than most in human hiistory and still take the problem very seriously.
Recognizing Obamas failures isn't going to help now. It's too late for that. The match is already on the fuse and we'd better put it out before the bomb explodes.
Those guys are bad role models.
We're visiting collective punishment on potentially every Muslim or Arab in the Middle East, which borders on genocide. Those people are defending themselves and their homeland, and we are the invaders on their land.
The violence just keeps escalating. Are you, too, proposing to wipe them all out? And how will you retbuild an enlightened civilization from there?
How much did the 3,000 dead in the twin towers or wounded and dead in Boston have to do with anything? How many more dead will we be counting when (and if) their sleeper cells come out in force?
Germany had the United States in its site in WW II, so we had to go to Europe and help stop them before we had to start learning German. The same for Japan and the Pacific. Where’s the outrage now for the innocents in Syria, Egypt et al.?
There’s no question that war is a terrible answer to any problem, but when has talking about it ever done any good? We’ve been talking to Iran for tens of years and they are still running thousands of centrifuges so they can get a purity of uranium or plutonium to make atomic weapons. How many innocents will die if they succeed?
Fighting a war needs an end game and that should be to insure that the enemy has no desire or way to continue their aggression or to retaliate. Contrary to POTUS who has less knowledge of war than a two year old, we need boots on the ground. They will find it easier to identify and not kill the non combatants. The innocents in the nations that are spawning this slime need to stand up and stop their goal of wiping out the United States and Israel and killing thousands of Christens in the mid east or face the danger from the countries fighting them which includes the United States.
The nay sayers in this country forced our withdrawal from Iraq. How many dead innocents do they have there now because we did? Because we pulled back from fighting Al Qaeda we gave Isis time to grow to the power they now have.
When we destroy the enemy then we can worry about rebuilding an "enlightened civilization". The world has been fighting Islam for hundreds of years. It’s time to put a permanent end to their aggression.
As Pat Buchanan says, they're not fighting us because we're so free and good. They're fighting us because we are there.
If we must be at war as long as there are some bands of criminals out there, the list of dragons to slay abroad will never end.
When will be have a new queen bee and what will the rest of the hive do when she fly's away with the drones to start a new hive?
two Hs in it!!! -- j