[lbo-talk] Edmund Wilson on Stalin

[Carrol Cox]

Any 'culture' is quite capable of producing authoritarian regimes, left or
right. But "Stalin," like "Mussolini," fascism or Stalinism, were products
of a very specific historical conjuncture, and they are not going to happen
again -- which doesn't mean that even worse regimes can appear.

The 'mistake' made by those who fret about the danger of "Stalinism" is that
of assuming history teaches "lessons" we can learn from. It doesn't. History
is crucial for political understanding, but not as a repertoire of
"lessons."

Carrol

-----Original Message-----
From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
On Behalf Of Doug Henwood
Sent: Sunday, December 11, 2011 1:39 PM
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Edmund Wilson on Stalin

On Dec 11, 2011, at 2:34 PM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote:


> It did produce the witch trials, Mcarthyism, internment camps, Guantanamo,
Jim Crow, and genocide.

But aside from that, we're really friendly, don't you think?
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