For those who cannot understand how it is that the big-government, nanny-state “liberal” left finds kinship with fundamentalist Islam and fascist dictators – an interview with poet Ali Ahmad Sa’id, who is known by the pseudonym “Adonis”;
Interviewer: “What are the reasons for growing glorification of dictatorships – sometimes in the name of pan-Arabism, and other times in the name of rejecting foreigners? The glorification comes even from the elites, as can be seen, for example, in the Saddam Hussein trial, and in all the people who support him.”
Adonis: “This phenomenon is very dangerous, and I believe it has to do with the concept of ‘oneness,’ which is reflected – in practical or political terms – in the concept of the hero, the savior, or the leader. This concept offers an inner sense of security to people who are afraid of freedom. Some human beings are afraid of freedom.”
Interviewer: “Because it is synonymous with anarchy?”
Adonis: “No, because being free is a great burden. It is by no means easy.”
Interviewer: “You’ve got to have a boss…”
Adonis: “When you are free, you have to face reality, the world in its entirety. You have to deal with the world’s problems, with everything…”
Interviewer: “With all the issues…”
Adonis: “On the other hand, if we are slaves, we can be content and not have to deal with anything. Just as Allah solves all our problems, the dictator will solve all our problems.”
[…]
“I don’t understand what is happening in Arab society today. I don’t know how to interpret this situation, except by making the following hypothesis: When I look at the Arab world, with all its resources, the capacities of Arab individuals, especially abroad – you will find among them great philosophers, scientists, engineers, and doctors. In other words, the Arab individual is no less smart, no less a genius, than anyone else in the world. He can excel – but only outside his society. I have nothing against the individuals – only against the institutions and the regimes.
“If I look at the Arabs, with all their resources and great capacities, and I compare what they have achieved over the past century with what others have achieved in that period, I would have to say that we Arabs are in a phase of extinction, in the sense that we have no creative presence in the world.”
Interviewer: “Are we on the brink of extinction, or are we already extinct?”
Adonis: “We have become extinct. We have the quantity. We have the masses of people, but a people becomes extinct when it no longer has a creative capacity, and the capacity to change its world.”
(Emphasis mine.)
The only portion that puzzles is why Ali Ahmad Sa’id doesn’t quite make the connection to “understand what is happening in Arab society today”. The two traits he mentions in the quote I selected (dependency on “higher” authority and lack of creativity) are not simply related – the latter is the expected consequence of the former.
The rest at Memri.
hey Steve D . .
“Socialists do not put socialists in concentration camps
Socialists do not put homosexuals in concentration camps
Socialists do not make deals with Capitalists to give them slave labour
Socialists do not put Communists in jail”
ever heard of China, the Soviet Union (Huurah Joe Stalin) Cuba, East Germany etc etc etc. All glorious Socialist republics et al.
back on your meds buddy, reality is too much for your obvioulsy limited sensibilities.
Gentlemen
I would like to agree with you but lets go down the list.
Stalin- was called a communist, that is why Hitler hated him and his regime. However, he was neither a communist nor a socialist. He was a despot or autocrat or tyrant, take your pick they all mean the same thing. So was Mao, Saddam Hussein, and so is Castro.
These people used some elements of socialism and Capitalism. Whatever, they fancied to attain their goals of complete power.
For the record, there has never been a Communist government, an equal sharing of resources among the people. The leadership required(Mother Teresa like) for such a government has never been found. That is why the more practical and possible socialism evolved. Socialism is practiced differently in every country. Canada’s socialism has evolved,out of a religious movement, into a mild almost centrist philosophy. You won’t see five penny a litre gasoline in Canada under a Socialist government like they have in Venezuala.
With the increasing gaps between the rich and poor, socialisms time may be coming sooner rather than later in Canada.
Steve d
“Arabs have been emasculated in the last century by the two economic and military superpowers of the time, England then America.”
There is no doubt that both England and America have interests in the middle east. To say that Arabs have been emasculated by them is rubbish. The Arabs have been emasculated by their own Emirs, Sheiks, Sultans and now Ayatollahs, Imams, and Clerics.
I get so tired of people like you blaming all the worlds ills on America and now England in this case. Where is your evidence? You drive by and smear with anonimity and expect everyone to swallow the nonsense.
Greed is not something that the United States has invented. Did you happen to notice the hundreds of millions, perhaps billions that Sultan Sadaam had lining the walls of his palaces. I didn’t see any great outpouring of benevolence on his part towards his people as he robbed them blind and continued to line his own bank accounts.
The wealth in the Arab countries has by and large settled into the hands of a few who hold positions of power and influence, mostly because of history and tribe. From what I have seen, there is very little coming down from the palaces to the common people. Emasculation…you bet it is, by those in a position to best take advantage of their own people and squeeze the last dinar out of them.
Daniel
Concrete,you need to look at the big picture.
You said…”Nowhere in Canada or America are people suffering because of “someones God”?”
I point out all the grieving families of the 9/11 attacks,the thousands of soldiers fighting and dying in a foriegn land,defending us against religious fanatics.These people believe their God is directing them to do these brutal deeds.They don’t care that you don’t believe this!
BTW, I said “in the name” of someone’s God.There is a big difference.
Penny,I am really dissappointed in you!Am I not allowed to state an opinion if it differs from yours?Please show me where I demonstrate ANY hatred towards religion.I will gladly apologize.Around my Christian friends,I try to keep my yap shut.I don’t want to undermine their faith as I KNOW how important it is to them.How about at least a little respect in return?After all,you will die with more peace of mind than I.Is that not the COMMON THEME in ALL religions even though there are many different God’s worshipped?
I was simply pointing out that alongside some definite good,religion has also created a lot of suffering in it’s name,not a stunning revelation…just look at the HEADLINES these days…..Penny,both our freedoms are presently being threatened by someone’s religion fed hatred of us.That is just simply a fact.
Steve d, re: “In summary, it is superpower meddling which while making a small number of Arabs immensely rich keep the vast majority impotent. Obviously, these days it becomes more of a challenge to maintain this stability because it was set up by outside forces.”
Steve, in western democratic countries, generally speaking ‘the cream rises to the top’ and our citizens allow themselves to be governed in a civilized, non-violent, and free society. In the Muslim countries, more often than not, ‘the scum rises to the top’ and their citizens learn to grudgingly live under oppressive regimes (tribal, religious, and national) because to do otherwise would be courting a death wish.
My question to you wrt your ‘superpower meddling’ statement is this: what would be your solution to the problem? Who should western leaders deal and negotiate with in the Muslim world.? Who are the good guys over there that you would feel comfortable in dealing with?
And please keep in mind that it is more the inertia and self-interest of the Muslim leaders themselves that keeps their citizens oppressed and impotent, NOT the ‘meddling’ of western superpowers.
If it were not for the ‘meddling’ of superpowers as you put it, in all likelihood warring tribes of Arabs would still be wandering the deserts on their camels in search of the next watering hole. Perhaps in your mind, that would have been a preferred historical path??
UN on Wrong Side of Cartoon Jihad
Danish toy maker Lego is upset with the United Nations, after the Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights published an �anti-discrimination� poster that uses a Lego building block to smear Denmark: Lego Caught Up In Racism Poster Row.
�We feel that the message of this poster can be interpreted as if we are a racist company,� Lego spokeswoman Charlotte Simonsen said. �I don�t know if that�s what�s intended, but it�s definitely one way of interpreting it.�
However, the UN said no affiliation to Lego was intended and apologised for the misunderstanding.
�The poster is in no way a comment on the specific situation in Denmark or on Lego,� a spokesperson said. �It is unfortunate that the poster has been interpreted as such.�
Right. +
via LGF
I need government to do one only thing for me – protect my right to live. the rest is useless and waste.
Before the dawn
There’s an ambitious article by JR Dunn at American Thinker which tries to sketch out where the long struggle with radical Islamism is headed. The excerpts below give a flavor of its principle argument.
…
Commentary
This belated flurry of strategic thinking means it is increasingly accepted that September 11 wasn’t simply a gigantic crime — an Oklahoma City bombing writ large. It was the end of an era and beginning of a new one. We are not, as JR Dunn so eloquently put it, about to “go back to everyday life, the way things were before all that unpleasantness in lower Manhattan and Washington those long years ago”. That may be terrible news for those who believe the 1960s never ended, but there it is. We are adrift on a dark sea and the mariners are breaking out the compasses.
It’s not surprising that thinkers all along the political spectrum are beginning to seriously consider what the new era portends and the strategies they should adopt to survive within it. Mainstream politicians have not as yet made the mental adjustment, but with any luck the 2008 Presidential campaign will be the first since September 11 to move beyond the “stolen election” of 2000 and openly debate what course we should follow in the long war ahead. It’s a debate that will touch on everything: military preparedness, our core beliefs, demography and the structure of civilization itself because we have finally come to accept that in the end nothing will be the same in the way that it was. It’s been a long time coming. It’s going to be a long time gone.
posted by wretchard
http://www.fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5345
Canadian Observer,
Your blaming religion for the ills of the world puts you right in with the signers of the Humanist Manifestos I & II, which would put you in the company of some of the major left wing nut cases in the western Hemisphere.
It might be helpful for you to learn to discern between true religion and false religion. From God’s point of view, there are only two religions in the world: “He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” I John 5:12 (simple, isn’t it?)
Socialists do not put socialists in concentration camps
No, they put them in gulags or prison.
Socialists do not put homosexuals in concentration camps
No, they just put them in prison or asylums – hello, Cuba!
Socialists do not make deals with Capitalists to give them slave labour
No, they cut out the middlemen and make their own slave labourers.
Socialists do not put Communists in jail
Depends how you define your terms. But if not, perhaps they should have!
Some individuals naive faith in socialism/big government never ceases to amaze.
After driving back nearly non-stop from Louisville, Kentucky – where I put in four 16 hour days showing dogs – I actually find a few minutes to put up a post and this John Daly twit has the nerve to criticize my writing???
You have no idea how close your ip address came to being added to a global spam filter, dickhead.
Canadian Observer,
The Islamist-Fascists we are fighting in this war are based in GOVERNMENTS.
This war came about because of the GOVERNMENTS of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Stalin- was called a communist, that is why Hitler hated him and his regime. However, he was neither a communist nor a socialist. He was a despot or autocrat or tyrant, take your pick
Whatever you want to call thse bastards is up to you. They all come from a collectivist mentality. You won’t see a true free enterprise, right of center, democratic leader doing any of those things. They are simply too busy making sure the economy is brisk and conditions are right for business.
Why is this so? Because they are smart people who understand human nature and the requirement that there be opportunity for the people to feed themselves and better their lives in peace and freedom. Business is the only way to provide the necessary funding and opportunity for a happy prosperous society. There is no other way.
I am aware that this concept is not understandable by the left. But it is a fact and can’t be denied without being dillusional.
I may not have education or intellect of Noam Chumpski (and it appears wasted on him) but I do possess common sense and an understanding of human nature.
Daniel and Joe Canuck
Yes, these Arab countries are run by their own people. BUT they were supported and abetted by the Superpower at the time. There was no talk back then of Democratizing them. It is only when these appointed and or approved despots begin to lose countrol of their people and, therefore, perhaps the oil too, that suddenly we want them to be like us.
The Arabs, like all cultures, deserve to be respected and treated humanely. If it was there choice to live tribally in primitive fashion then they should have been given that opportunity. However, oil companies need to deal with legal entities for contractual purposes. So they helped create them. Now they are beginning to refashion them, starting with Iraq. The USA will have a LARGE presence in the middle east until either the oil is gone or the instability is gone, whichever comes first.
Canader is not a target? No, non, nyet,nono; the Yew SS$ is though.
Incredible!
CTV drags in Aunty-American in the 3rd paragraph of this item.
Canada is not a target? “highly unlikely”? …
Bali was “highly unlikely” & Madrid and… etc.
Dream on, djkytrfgs. +
T.O. subway most feared target of terrorism: study
Canadian Press
OTTAWA � Canadians believe a terrorist attack on their country is unlikely but feel if one did happen, the Toronto subway is the most probable target.
That’s the picture painted by a federal focus-group study of views in several major cities on the prospects of a 9/11-style assault.
Overall, Canadians interviewed during the sessions felt an attack was “highly unlikely” given the proximity of other, more attractive targets — namely the United States. +
http://www.paulding.net/bin/url.cgi/13229.22
ctv
Steve d, you can’t be serious. Haven’t you learned from these serious cons that altruism guides the affairs of states? It’s not the oil, it’s the White Man’s Burden.
Haha, yeah right, agitfact. I forgot George’s talking point. What was I thinking? Yeah, we love the Iraqis so much we will lay down our childrens lives so they can live in Freedom! Yeah, that’s it. Now I am back on track.
Concrete, the very thing that defines this “war on terror”IS the ABSENCE of an opposing GOVERNMENT to DEFEAT!…BTW,the governments you name are now history.Why then does the killing continue in these countries?
PastorWally,your remarks betray your handle.I put forth some ideas for consumption by the readers here and the first point you make is to insult me? Thank you for your kind words.
The natural end result of
fascism/nazism/communism/socialism/islamism:
Tyranny, Destruction and Death. +
The Evolving Al-Qaeda Threat
By James Phillips
Heritage Foundation | March 22, 2006
Jemaah Islamiah, captured in Thailand; and Hamzah al-Rabbiyah al-Masri, a key operational leader killed in Pakistan. More than 4,000 suspected al-Qaeda members have been arrested worldwide since September 11, 2001. Al-Qaeda cells have been uncovered, dismantled, and disrupted in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. More than $140 million of its assets have been blocked in over 1,400 bank accounts worldwide.
Al-Qaeda remains a potent threat to the United States, its allies, and a wide variety of other states. But al-Qaeda’s leaders increasingly must focus on their own personal security and have less time for plotting mass murder. It is more difficult for bin Laden and his lieutenants to recruit new members, train them, communicate with them, or carry out new operations. The isolation of al-Qaeda’s top leaders, believed to be hidden along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, has reduced their ability to supervise the network’s activities in other regions. They often must resort to unsecure low-tech communications such as letters carried by couriers. A letter from Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s second in command, to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda’s operations in Iraq, was intercepted last year. Zawahiri chastised Zarqawi in that letter, dated in July 2005, for unleashing indiscriminate violence on Iraqi civilians, whose political support would be important for turning Iraq into a radical Islamic state.
Despite their tactical differences, al-Qaeda’s leaders share the same long-term goal: the creation of a single, unified Muslim state governed by a harsh brand of Sharia (Islamic law). To recreate a version of the caliphate and build a radical Islamic empire, bin Laden and his associates seek to play the role of a vanguard party that will serve as a catalyst to inspire other Muslims to join in building their new utopia. Just as fascist and communist revolutionaries were willing to kill tens of millions of people to impose their utopian schemes in the 20th century, al-Qaeda’s leaders are willing to spill the blood of millions to create their own radical vision of an Islamic empire in the 21st century.
Defeating Al-Qaeda + more
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=21739
via newsbeat1.com
steve d, “Now they are beginning to refashion them, starting with Iraq. The USA will have a LARGE presence in the middle east until either the oil is gone or the instability is gone, whichever comes first.”
Indeed, but isn’t it high time many of these countries are ‘refashioned”? Otherwise, how will they ever get rid of the ‘instability’? How will the world ever be free of their instability and human rights atrocities, unless someone takes the bull by the horn and does something?
The sad fact is that the coalition in Afghanistan and the US led forces in Iraq have to work with the indigent human resources available in helping those countries reshape their governments and their citizens lives, just as previous western governments had to do in other troubled countries in the past. To pull out now would leave a tremendous vacuum, which would soon be filled by the Taliban, al Qaeda, and every variant of Islamofascist thug that one could imagine.
” There was no talk back then of Democratizing them”
What has this got to do with anything?? That is your justification in laying all the blame at the feet of the western countries who are trying to help?
Kevin
That big government takes care of a lot of your needs; the need to have roads, affordable health care, protection, clean water, law and order, pensions, employment insurance, sewage, garbage pickup and disposal, mail service, education, electric energy supply and distribution, passports, airports. That is just off the top of my head. You could stop using all of these things, out of principle, and walk into the bush about 30km and build a house for yourself I am sure big government wouldn’t bother you.
maz2: “T.O. subway most feared target of terrorism: study”
…it would probably be more accurate if ya dropped the “subway” part of the above sentence…
😉
Steve d
So which is it. You would rather have them live as wandering desert bedouin nomads or do you want the oil companies to be able to shake hands with the sheik and be able to develop the oil reaerves? I don’t see that you can have it both ways. Once there is development, it will continue and the wandering nomads will settle into cities because of developing infastructure brought about by developing the resource. Once development comes, you can’t put the genie back in the bottle. I am thinking that you probably like to drive your car, enjoy a little heat in your home on a winter day. It is unlikely that you cook over an open fire. These are all things that each of us enjoy day to day because of the development that took place. Oil has fueled our industries here and made a good living for many of us possible. Which of these things do you want to do without? How would you do it differently?
Blaming the USA for doing what democratic capatalism does best is hypocritical unless you are living as a mountain nomad in the rockies and blogging from a solar powered laptop.
Daniel
Well thanks for the info Steve, didn’t realize they dabbled in all those areas!
How good a job do they do in all those areas? At what cost? At what point do they stop involving themselves? Are you suggesting that everything the government involves inself in is an unmitigated success? That government should continue to get more & more involved with every aspect of its citizens lives?
Nothing like good old central planning to help the great unwashed masses, hey Steve? Just one more program to help foster dependency!
Steve D. Utopia is an unachievable farce… give it up and go get yours, cause ain’t nobody gonna hand it to you.
You can equate Socialism to an untested, yet to be achieved form of communism, and that’s cool, but impossible.
You forget to put one little thing in your equation Steve D. The “human” factor.
It’s like when I was a kid, and I asked one of the nuns what the point was in asking God for “Peace on Earth”. You might as well ask him for “Donuts for all”… because at least the donuts are doable.
As long as mankind is mankind, Utopia is but a dream. What your asking for, just like the Nun asking God, is for Mankind to become something other than what he is.
The obvious answer is that we wouldn’t be Mankind anymore, we wouldn’t be Human. We’d be something else.
I won’t hold my breath waiting for that evolution to come in my life time. Nope, RRSP’s and 401’s for me.
If the great evolution happens, don’t wake me, I’ll be on the beach.
The transient god of our temporal world is now the race for thermonuclear domination. If an international outlaw is successful in securing a nuke along with a delivery capacity, the whole, global network is at a catastrophic risk. The name of the game is who maintains nuclear dominance.
If we keep dominance, the world will be imperfect, but secure. We will continue to struggle with our qualified freedom, enjoying whatever benefits independence and self-reliance bring. If the outlaws are successful, pray that you are never even near the mushroom cloud.
At 9/11, one of the players stood up and kicked over the table. Now arguments that might have mattered are irrelevant. The only thing that matters is who shoots quick and straight and true.
As the Rubiyat instructs us,
“The Bird of Time has but a little way
To fly — and Low! the Bird is on the Wing.”
And at this juncture, those who like to second-guess don’t matter.
I think Churchill put it extremely well – “Winston Churchill Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”
That big government takes care of a lot of your needs; the need to have roads, affordable health care, protection, clean water, law and order, pensions, employment insurance, sewage, garbage pickup and disposal, mail service, education, electric energy supply and distribution, passports, airports
steve, almost everything on that list would do better in the hands of private enterprise and many are privitized in places. Government monopolies have no reason to be cost efficient or competitive.
Government needs to provide for the common defense, enforce laws, maintain infrastructure where appropriate and collect the taxes for those services – which would be a hell of a lot less – if it weren’t for funded wasteful socialist programs. We are bright enough and prudent enough, if taxes were diminished, to allocate our wisely. Bush’s vision was for private faith-based charities, not government, to pick up the load on social services. They are more efficient and competitive. They must answer to the public or the spigot gets shut. The Red Cross after 9/11 screwed up badly and it severly not getting the donations it did in the past. Can we do that with any screwed up gov’t agency? Gov’t programs live on, sucking our money, regardless of performance.
‘He who governs least, governs best”…..Thomas Jefferson
I still agree with the point you were making about historic ideological roots. When I think of fascism I think of it as arising from the severe right – Pinochet, Franco, Hitler. Socialism seems to me as Communism the Lessor(sans the gulags), a flawed and incompatible mesh of Capitalism and Communism or Communism sucking off Capitalism.
It’s toxicity can be illustrated in France. How doomed can you be when your focus is on life long job protection and you are simultaniously staring down the barrel of dhimmitude in a few generations?
Socialists never seem to me to get it, here and abroad. Their pc multi-culti garbage has killed free expression, numbed survival skills and vilified individual achievement.
Churchill, that’s the same guy who said “I’m easily satisfied with the very best”:)
He also said “History will be kind to me, for I will write it”.
Gotta love Winston, he always told it like it was… the evil bastard.
Fascism “arising from the severe right.” Penny, for once I agree with you on something. Where were you when MSYB and I were debating that point hot and heavily 10 days ago?
Forgive my typos, left-handed and a bad proof reader. What more can I say.
What does the Afgan government and it’s sharia courts have to say about the Canadian solidiers in their country that happen to be Christians? Do they care that Christians at their behest are engaging in combat operations against their fellow countrymen to keep the elected Afgan government from coming apart? Do they think our Christian soldiers looney tunes too? Shouldn’t our soldiers have to stand trial in a sharia court if they’re breaking an law that carries a death sentence punishment?
If anything happens to Abdul Rahman (the Afgan Christian convert) or others like him…I swear I’ll push HARD to get our troops the hell outta there!!! We don’t need to be propping up another intolerant murderous regime hiding under a thin guise of democratic freedom. Without basic human rights for everyone, Afganistan’s democracy is a MEANINGLESS SHAM!!!
Canadian Observer,
Didn’t mean to insult you. The more I think about it, you are right that many wars are fought in the name of a god. However, most folks cannot differentiate between the One True God and the many counterfeit versions out there. God is at work; he has a plan; world affairs are working out just as is outlined in the Book.
When Sir Walter Scott lay dying, he asked his servant to bring ‘the book.’ The servant said: “Sir Walter, you have a library, which book should I bring” to which Sir Walter replied: “There’s only one Book.”
Martin, when in Rome, you do as the Romans.
Although I’m none to pleased by it either. Remember, the court is dealing with a law created under Taliban rule, they might not have had a chance to ammend all the shitty ones yet.
Regardless, I wouldn’t be too concerned. I don’t think the Government of Afghanistan is going to give up all the goodies it’s getting for the sake of killing one Christian.
2 Christians maybe…
Penny and Steve,
I like to think of forms of governance like a circle. From where we are, if you swing too far to the extreme right(Hitler), you will end up with fascist dictatorship. If you swing too far to the extreme left (Stalin), you will also end up with fascist dictatorship. It can arise out of either extreme as either kind of governance taken to its extreme produces in kind. As far as I know, extreme fascist dictatorships have always produced horrible governments for the country and its people.
It seems to be the day for Winston Churchill quotes. The one that I like that relates to this is “Democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.”
Daniel
PM calls Afghan President over Christian convert’s trial
“I called President Karzai today to express my deep concerns regarding the Raham case and the issue of freedom of religion in Afghanistan,” Mr. Harper said in the statement. NEW
Bardot Receives Cool Canadian Welcome
“I made a gruelling trip only to be turned away by the prime minister. I am very disappointed. He will not even talk to me by telephone,” the animal rights activist said. Bardot said she was detained for more than two hours by Canadian customs and immigration staff upon her arrival last night. +
via nealenews.com
BB here:
http://img.stern.de/_content/53/03/530349/Brigitte_alt_250.jpg
Boycott Bourque.
William, if the Afgan government expects Canadian troops to spill blood over there to stabilize the region they have to address human rights now. It’s not just the murder by decree of some poor Joe standing up for his religious freedom that has me spitting mad. It’s that nobody has done anything to address human rights problems through 3+ years since the Taliban got kicked out.
Women are still in Burkas, Christians are loonies to be put to death (unless they’re foreign soldiers which makes it o.k…for now) and injustices continue against unfortunate individuals under government supported sharia law. How much has Afganistan changed? Doesn’t look like it changed much at all.
If Christians are being murdered by government courts for their beliefs we should leave now. They can call us when they’ve signed a Bill of Rights.
http://www.mises.org/etexts/mises/bureaucracy/section4.asp
Bureaucracy
by Ludwig von Mises
Excerpt;
We do not need to deal in detail with what the Nazis have achieved in this regard. The Nazis have succeeded in entirely eliminating the profit motive from the conduct of business. In Nazi Germany there is no longer any question of free enterprise. There are no more entrepreneurs. The former entrepreneurs have been reduced to the status of Betriebsf�hrer (shop manager). They are not free in their operation; they are bound to obey unconditionally the orders issued by the Central Board of Production Management, the Reichswirtschaftsministerium, and its subordinate district and branch offices. The government not only determines the prices and interest rates to be paid and to be asked, the height of wages and salaries, the amount to be produced and the methods to be applied in production; it allots a definite income to every shop manager, thus virtually transforming him into a salaried civil servant. This system has, but for the use of some terms, nothing in common with capitalism and a market economy. It is simply socialism of the German pattern, Zwangswirtschaft. It differs from the Russian pattern of socialism, the system of outright nationalization of all plants, only in technical matters. And it is, of course, like the Russian system, a mode of social organization that is purely authoritarian.
http://www.mises.org/story/1937
Excerpt;
The basis of the claim that Nazi Germany was capitalist was the fact that most industries in Nazi Germany appeared to be left in private hands.
What Mises identified was that private ownership of the means of production existed in name only under the Nazis and that the actual substance of ownership of the means of production resided in the German government. For it was the German government and not the nominal private owners that exercised all of the substantive powers of ownership: it, not the nominal private owners, decided what was to be produced, in what quantity, by what methods, and to whom it was to be distributed, as well as what prices would be charged and what wages would be paid, and what dividends or other income the nominal private owners would be permitted to receive. The position of the alleged private owners, Mises showed, was reduced essentially to that of government pensioners.
De facto government ownership of the means of production, as Mises termed it, was logically implied by such fundamental collectivist principles embraced by the Nazis as that the common good comes before the private good and the individual exists as a means to the ends of the State. If the individual is a means to the ends of the State, so too, of course, is his property. Just as he is owned by the State, his property is also owned by the State.
The government of Afghanistan is facing a tremendous amount of presure from foriegn governments over this issue. Maninly from the US, Canada and Great Britian. (basically the countries that are holding Afghanistan together right now) Whatever anyone says about the war in Iraq, the Afghans (especially their political leaders) want us there, to keep the country from falling under Taliban rule for another 2 decades.
The insanity arguement is a way for the government of Afghanistan to get this guy off, appease the occupational forces, and save face with the largely fundamentalist public. Freedom of religion may be addressed at a latter date, right now they have a tough enough job holding the country together. Unfortunatley I don’t believe that reformation is possible under Islam, its qiute clear on the subject; any follower of Islam who leaves the religion is subject to death.
nice work ol hoss i was hoping you would weigh in on that topic.
martin B, re: “If Christians are being murdered by government courts for their beliefs we should leave now. They can call us when they’ve signed a Bill of Rights.”
Easy, Martin. Not too much too fast. Their collective psyche will overload and short circuit.
Give them at least another century before Muslims, acting on their own, can make an honest attempt at anything approaching a Bill or Charter of Rights as we know it.
In the meantime, expect the usual sharia judgements of stonings, amputations, and executions for the most inane and contrived ‘crimes’ against Islam.
Ryan, if the Afganistan government wants us there then get a Bill of Rights now. We have stroke but not the balls to use it. I can’t support our troops propping up lie.
Abdul Rahman isn’t the only Afgan Christian and if harm comes to him or others like him we have to leave. We must fight for what we believe and I don’t believe in a government that leaves it’s citizens out to hang in the wind of sharia courts. If at the end of the day we leave a stable but selectively oppressive quasi-democratic regime, then we’ve failed miserably on the most important point of all…bringing freedom to the people. All our sacrificed Canadian blood would be for not.
I don’t have much truck with ideological discussions, because ideologies neither exist per se nor make things work – people do.
To the comment about technology and creativity functioning only in “freedom,” I would reply with a question: How come Nazi Germany developed the first jet and unguided missiles, not to mention that envy of the Allied armies, the jerry can? Freedom is not the mother of invention, necessity is. There also was some good architecture: Speer’s design for the Nuremberg grounds did receive the gold medal at the 1937 Paris World Fair.
As to business and the economy functioning best under free enterprise, the “Zwangswirtschaft” did manage to increase production to unprecedented levels in 1944, despite years of allied bombing designed to bring it to its knees. I suspect that your average free enterpriser would have shut down and left for Switzerland long before 1944.
Just be careful of your labels and ‘isms, they may not be totally adequate explanations.
Martin B
That’s part of the reason we are there, to help the Afghans get a functiuonal society off the ground. I know we live in a society of instant gratification but since when did the political process move at light speed? How long did it take Canada to get a Charter of Rights and Freedoms? Yet you expect people who have been essentially living in the stone age to define their own bill of right, over night? Or else.
An excellent post at the German site, “Atlantic Review”: “Why is Abu Ghraib a cover story again, but not Darfur?”
http://atlanticreview.org/archives/285-Why-is-Abu-Ghraib-a-cover-story-again,-but-not-Darfur.html
If you want cartoon, look at the Der Spiegel covers.
Excerpts:
‘Popular German magazines such as Der Spiegel frequently put US critical pictures on their cover. Critical reporting about the world’s sole superpower is necessary, but statements like “Torture in the Name of Freedom” (as seen on a recent Spiegel cover) appear to be malicious distortions to sell more copies rather than critical, ethical journalism…
Although Darfur is much closer to Europe than the US, the mass murder, expulsions and rapes in Darfur (some call it “genocide”) seem to be covered more extensively in the US than in the German media. American NGOs devoted to Darfur are more vocal than German NGOs. Do Germans care more about alleged torture, abuse, human rights violation and inhumane living conditions in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib than about much worse conditions in Darfur and many other war zones?..
Darfur is more outrageous in both magnitude and intensity than Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib, but the US scandals are more in the news because the media is more interested in the perpetrators than in the victims. US perpetrators are more sexy than Sudanese perpetrators, it seems…’
The full post has a great deal more interesting and substantive content. Comparisons with Canadian media welcome.
Mark
Ottawa
steve d.
“Arabs have been emasculated in the last century by the two economic and military superpowers of the time, England then America.
Their foreign policy is dictated by their economic interests. In this case oil has been increasingly important. To ensure that oil is delivered reliably you must have order and control of the supply. The Americans can control the supply if the locals could supply the order. It doesn’t matter who gives you the necessary stability as long as they leave you to exploit the resource. So deals were made and are still being made to ensure political stability.
In summary, it is superpower meddling which while making a small number of Arabs immensely rich keep the vast majority impotent. Obviously, these days it becomes more of a challenge to maintain this stability because it was set up by outside forces.”
Just having a little fun here – I’ll do a SNL.
Steve, you ignorant socialist slut … where do you think that the US buys most of their foreign oil from? Don’t know? … think one province over.
NEWS FLASH
Abduhl Rahman case:
PMSH Has Balls
Papa Bear said…
Alan Johnson […] passionately argues that the Left has blinded itself to the obvious fact that radical Islamism is the chief totalitarian menace in the world today.
I don’t think that the Left is blind to Islam. I think the Left is in love with Islam, and wants Islam to succeed in conquering the world, just as decades ago they wanted Soviet Communism to prevail.
Some think that Islam is incompatible with the Left. I disagree. Islam is incompatible with feminism, with gay rights, with a number of other issues that the Left embraces, but these issues are not the core of the Left.
The core of the Left, the center of the Left’s worldview, is the advocacy of a society where the State controls everything, where there is a law or regulation for every activity of life, and where there is no place for individual accomplishment outside of the confines of the Group.
The essence of the difference between Leftists and classical liberalism is that the classical liberal sees the Group as a way of keeping its member individuals secure and providing a stable framework where individuals may persue their own goals, while theLeft views the individual as the property of the Group, to be used to promote the goals of the Group as articulated by the Group’s leadership.
As such, there is not a huge difference between Stalinist Russia, and Iran’s theocracy +
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12136206&postID=114303337235849226