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rohirwine

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Posts posted by rohirwine

    Communism

    in Hall of Intellectuals

    Posted

    @Matteo

    Yeah, as we see here how curropt some politicians or companies are. I don't mean to be too negative about communism, I actually favour many aspects of it above capitalism (especially the social aspect).

    Well, actually i was not specifically addressing corruption (it was quite widespread among soviet countries as well), but the fact that the capitalist system seems not able to distribute equally the profits as is usually asserted. So many people are cut off from enjoing they fruit of their efforts/sacrifices.

    Communism

    in Hall of Intellectuals

    Posted

    Yep but wasn't the International calling for revolution in its early days?

    Well no regime fully implemented Marx's theory, but I believe they did give an additional meaning to communism. We always tend to say communism is great in theory, but that applied communism isn't like theoritic communism. Of course it's not the same, but I guess this shows communism has its pitfalls. The main pitfall being that it's impossible to implement and that everyone tries to give an other meaning to it or abuse it in some way, that it simply won't work with the human beings we are (I'm talking about collectivism).

    Yes, but this applies to every political-economic theory: practice is quite different from theory.

    Communism

    in Hall of Intellectuals

    Posted

    Marx talked about revolution? Nope, he talked about defending man's rights, and about the fact that only united the proletars could improve their conditions (hence the International). I don't recall any revolutionary call from "Das Kapital".

    Moreover, what soviet or soviet-like regimes propaganded was: from everyone following his capabilities, to everyone in reason of his needs.

    I doubt this was fully implemented.

    Independantism and Regionalism

    in Hall of Intellectuals

    Posted

    Generally speaking i'm against indipendentism/regionalism, but i support a strong authonomy for particular regions wich could need a more tuned local policy. As a matter of facts, though, since many people think that it's better to risk a war rather than live under a "foregin" central authority, i'd choose a practical view and let those regions become indipendent: better indipendentism than a war.

    Seperation of Church and State...?

    in Hall of Intellectuals

    Posted

    @Klaas: you're right: Rome fell mainly for economic and internal power reasons.

    It could sound quite simple, but it's not. This involved many if not all aspects of the Imperium life, from countriside production to the army supplying, to the emperor's power, and the religious issue. History is never easy, and, most of all, different periods might be compared only with extreme caution (because of the different contest).

    Communism

    in Hall of Intellectuals

    Posted

    Hmmm, communism, doesn't this wordmean a collectivistic management of economy?

    This is what Marx and Engels proposed. They never talked about "people's dictatorship" or things like that. They are an offspring of the XX cent. political debate.

    Freedom vs. equality?

    I'm definitely against this anthitesis. I believe we are created equal, but live unequal lives, hence our differences. Do we have to destroy these differences? No, i don't believe so (from diversity comes success and richness), but i believe everyone should be given a common starting ground (i.e. oportunities), wich unregulated capitalism usually tends to eliminate.

    I much appreciated almost all of your posts, wich hold many truths in many aspects. What i believe, though, is that we all are biased by what has been called real-socialism or communism made true, i.e. the authoritarian soviet system (and his offsprings and relatives around the world). Was that communism? One thing for sure was that the state hold all the economic controls, but as for control over the state by the people, that was close to nothing or zero. In fact, most communist regimes were nothing than a new oligarchy with proletarian leaders, rather than aristocratic ones. The right of birth was substituted by the right of belonging (to the party), that's it. Moreover, harshness of such a political system was made heavyer by the modernization going on: no citizen could escape from the state control in almost every aspect and moment of life. The totalirarian state.

    What can we hold for positive from these experiences?

    Few things.

    First, that everyone was granted sanitarian care, education, housing and a job (under very hard condition though).

    Secondly, and for only a brief period, every single "comunist" revolution, granted a fair level of representativity and internal democracy to those who adhered to it (and many times this meant the vast majority of the populace), while those same people hold no political rights just a few weeks before. Usually this stage ended very soon to be substituted with a strong centralized and oligarchic dictatorship.

    A part from this, i see few strong relations between the real-socialist regimes and Marx economic and social analysis.

    Election Day

    in Hall of Intellectuals

    Posted

    @Matteo

    Yeah terrorism should be fought in a totally different manner. But I also think you can't compare it 100% to the terrorism of ETA, IRA, RAF, or the red brigades; the motivations are quite different, and so is the culture.

    Agreed i didn't want to go OT and made it simple... :beer:

    Election Day

    in Hall of Intellectuals

    Posted

    Well, I agree with your reasons, that things are different today, but appeasing terrorists is almost more dangerous than the Nazi appeasement.

    This is true: Nazism was a fairly identifiable political subject, easier to deal with: in fact, when the allies realized that they had to resist by armed means, they had half the job done (winning the war was the other half, of course), and if they'd realized it earlier (well, someone realized it, actually) the joub would have been even easier.

    With terrorism, as we agree, things are different: Abrahams tanks are less efficient as a solving mean than a good intelligence and police work.

    In Italy (and in Spain, as Sukkit can tell you) we had our fair share of terrorism.

    When "heavy" tools have been used, it didn't work (if not to calm people a bit, showing some muscles to the electors). Our best efforts (wich almost wiped out the phenomena, were police operations, interpol cohoperation, intelligence infiltrations into the terrorist organizations and so on.

    The best results came out from the succesful attempt of convincing people that terrorist weren't their paladins, fighting for justice, but just fanatical criminals.

    How has this been done? Analyzing causes of terrorism arising, and eliminating them.

    What the US administration has done with this terrorist arising is quite far from this, imho.

    Seperation of Church and State...?

    in Hall of Intellectuals

    Posted

    As a moral b(i)ased atheist i share Klaas views here.

    It sounds a bit exclusivist to think that only christians hold moral values.

    As a matter of fact here are some principles shared by most religions (or philosophies) around the world:

    1 don't kill

    2 don't steal

    They are mine as well, and i don't need a religion to recognize their absolute value.

    Peace

    :beer:

    This is why we call them Ringwraiths

    in The Green Dragon

    Posted

    :beer:

    Gilluin, in Paris,  there is a "rue Rohan" in honor of a French Duke ... the Mayor of Paris may be sued too :P

    But this won't last forever ... things change ... but if ever there is a change, it will be a brutal one ...

    Quite right Curu: copyright tend to be limited in time: "only" 70 years, more or less... :P

    Those things happening make me cry out against the whole copyright mechanism and law system... :P

    Election Day

    in Hall of Intellectuals

    Posted

    Edited, Wijit got here before me...i might edit again for his post's post.

    Appeasement never works.  Remember the Nazis in WW2.

    This is completely out of trail, imho, Quackie: different contest, different approach. Terrorism isn't similar to Nazism in any significant way, our society and international situation isn't similar to that of the 30ties.

    Featured In A Vietnam Museum

    in Hall of Intellectuals

    Posted

    Oh, well, JFK is (and was, when he was alive) revered by Italy too, and the same applies to FDR. Are you so annoyed by this too? ;) j/k

    Jokes apart: i don't see this as a disadvantage, on the contrary, i suppose that having a worldwide estimated President would be a decisive advantage for USA. The more countries are well leaned towards him, the better international relations may be spread by US.

    P.S.I didn't put any words in your mouth, i only stated that i saw no reasons for an American to see John Kerry position about Vietnam war as a shame, a defect or worse...

    [edit]Darn: Klaas beat me...:P[/edit]

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