On May 13, 2011, at 2:09 PM, Wojtek S wrote:
> Somebody: "Actually, this gets to a larger issue: how different
> socialist and communist governments have widely varying impacts upon
> human welfare. "
>
> [WS:] I would rephrase this question to: how different reformists or
> quasi reformist forces have different impact in different historical
> settings? To use one country's example: communist government in China
> ca 1949 was a very different force than communist government in that
> country ca 1968, which in turn was a different social force than
> communist government ca 1995. This implies that ideological labels
> are not very useful in not altogether misleading. We need to examine
> what combination of social forces and institutions adopted the
> "communist" label at what point in time and for what reason.
Of course, such blather about "social forces" and "institutions" is blind to the obvious fact that the same gang of people (the CPC nomenklatura) were holding dictatorial power in China at all those times.
Shane Mage
"scientific discovery is basically recognition of obvious realities that self-interest or ideology have kept everybody from paying attention to"