Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> Chris Doss wrote:
>
> >What you are watching is the death agony of the oligarchs and the
> >transformation of Russia into an authoritarian, dirigiste
> >state-capitalist system, probably based on something like chaebols.
> >Or that is my view.
>
> Which isn't the worst among the alternatives, is it?
Sometime in the past year I believe I suggested that for most of the world an authoritarian state _independent_ of the u.s. was probably the best most peoples of asia, africa, & latin america could hope for. Democratic states (that try to be) independent of the u.s. tend to turn into excessively bloody authoritarian states friendly to the u.s. As Juan Bosch, Allende, Mossedegh, Arbenz, Lumumba, and a number of other liberal but patriotic presidents around the world discovered. Bosch laid it down as a principle that any patriotic leader of a smaller country who trusted the u.s. would end either dead or in exile.
Carrol