Eubulides wrote:
>
>
> Ah, the overdetermination of evidence by theory and the underdetermination of
> theory by evidence.
Try substituting "Vulgar Platonism" for "theory" and you will be nearer the mark.
The assumption that a given regime is a "bad" or "good" manifestation of some Ism presupposes a blueprint which one can follow properly or improperly; and regimes do not come into existence in that way. The sort of thing KM mocks when he speaks of writing recipes for the cookshops of the future. Stalin's regime was one possible outcome or 'stage' in a process that lasted about 90 years. Some processes die in a week or so. I don't think any one revolutionary course is much evidence either for or against any political direction subsequent to that process. Just as I don't think the weakness of the left in the u.s. at the present time has any non-tautological lessons for us.
Carrol