The answer to this is 'yes of course!'. Compared to life under the feudal filth, humanity made progress under the general secretaries. This nostalgia for the quaint and the privileged is beginning to piss me off. It is so nauseatingly American. By that I mean it comes from a position of material privilege. People should read Trotsky's _In Defence of Marxism_ before they go all wet eyed over the Dalai Lama.
I excuse Barkley because he is not a Marxist and besides we have been in cyber space together for so long. But enough is enough. Much more of this and I might even take out a sub to Living Marxism.
Wake up you idiots who want to take a trip down nostalgia lane to feudalism. Life was nasty, brutish and short and please spare me the crap left over from the Cold War. I get enough of it every day from the anarchists here in Brisbane.
regards
Gary