a reply to:
TDDAgain
My experience here in these forums is to have found knee-jerk and simplistic reactions to even using the word capitalism or capitalist in a manner
that is not always as you say, ''the best'' and all the rest. My short reply to Strong was in that vein.
Your' reply exemplified that. A short resounding trip into that old, repetitive hackneyed response of yeah but communism. And yes, you said, ''an
example'' but was it really just an example? You might have used what else to juxtapose your reaction such as, oh say, feudalism or monarchism or what
ever. It doesn't matter because the rest of that reaction on your part demonstrated that it was not just a random response but a knee-jerk reaction.
The use of the term ''comrade'' was not used in the manner of one who is engaged in a common struggle, but rather in a standard and cheap pejorative
way, in as you say, a sarcastic way.
But what solutions do I have ? Hardly any. Capitalism has won the day and the last centuries. Communism is gone unless one want's to continue to
equate it with nothing more than totalitarianism and authoritarianism. And that's fine, but by making that equation of Communism being anti-capitalism
and hence totalitarian negates or drastically reduces our ability to even think about capitalism in a questioning manner.
And none of that was introduced into the thread by Strong. Strong used the term in neither a positive manner or a negative manner, just as a reference
to our economic system that Strong understands to have different stages. To that one word, not to anything else.
So, to your accusation of my short comment to Strong was not so much in line with the flow of the thread. I plead guilty.
I did not expect anyone to reply to it or pay it any attention other than Strong.
As I read though the thread I saw that you had posted as I thought one might. So while you accuse me of drifting from the flow of the thread, you did
exactly the same thing. Yet while mine was not intended as a challenge to the flow of the thread or that one word, your response was also if not more
of a drift, actually taking the conversation farther afield and starting a new topic, one which I might add you have chosen to continue in your post
above.
And in your post above you have chosen to bring into this conversation your own second hand experiences in a communist regime. I"m pretty sure it was
tough for your folks and gave you some good life's lessons on the comparisons of the goods of capitalism and the bads of communism. That's good
teaching.
Again, capitalism has won, and for good reason. But that need not negate our ability to comprehend not only the goods but the bads as well that come
with it as a system.
Finally, all Strong did was to use the word once with no emphasis on good or bad. It was you who chose or maybe didn't have any choice at all to pick
that out to react to.