John Hinderaker has a must-read post from the other day, ” Communism Collapsed: Who Cares? ” And following the link there takes us to Janet Daley, at Telegraph UK , ” The lessons of the fall of communism have still not been learnt .” Also blogging: Bruce McQuain, ” Why has the collapse of Communism had so little impact on political discourse in the West? ” There’s an answer here that the above commentators have missed. The question of why progressives haven’t “learned” from the collapse of communism assumes that leftists conceive of politics through reason. That is, it’s an erroneous assumption to assert that since capitalism emerged objectively by the end of the twentieth century as the single working economic system that it thereby follows that progressives will see the errors of their ideological ways and abandon the collectivist’s historical program. Leftists are true believers. Their religion is the Utopian of the Marxist state. Progressive weren’t deterred from their goal of a communist revolution because they don’t believe true communism has been tried. I’ll perhaps write more on this, but for now remember my review of David Horowitz’s book, The Politics of Bad Faith , and the quote from Horowitz: Totalitarianism is the possession of reality by a political Idea — the Idea of socialist kingdom of heaven on earth; the redemption of humanity by political force. To radical believers this Idea is so beautiful it is like God Himself. It provides the meaning of a radical life. This is the solution that makes everything possible; the noble end that justifies the regrettable means. Belief in the kingdom of socialist heaven is faith that can transform vice into virtue, lies into truth, evil into good. In this revolutionary religion, the Way, the Truth, and the Life of salvation lie not with God above, but with men below — ruthless, brutal, venal men — on whom faith confers the power of gods. There is no mystery in the transformation of the socialist paradise into Communist hell: liberation theology is a satanic creed. More on this later. In the meanwhile, see ” Anti-Intellectualism and the Marxist Idea .”
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Why Lessons of the Fall of Communism Have Not Been Learned
**Written by Doug Powers Under congressional rules I believe he’s now qualified to get his fourth subpoena for free. From Politico : The hits just keep coming for former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine. A House Financial Services subcommittee unanimously agreed to subpoena the Democrat for questioning about his role in the collapse of the now-bankrupt brokerage firm MF Global. “We want to find out what happened to the customers’ money,” said Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas), chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. “We want to know what was going on in the regulatory world … and we also want to know what was going on inside the corporation. We think we need to understand that.” This is the third congressional subpoena in less than a week for the former New Jersey governor, who was knocked out of office by Chris Christie in 2009 and whose name has been floated as a potential Treasury secretary candidate for the Obama administration. If Rep. Neugebauer wants to know what happened, Jon Corzine is probably the last person he’ll want to ask. Corzine may well end up going Solyndra exec on steroids and take up residence behind the Fifth Amendment when he appears — if anybody can find him , that is. Update: What a surprise… Corzine is expected to take Five at his first hearing tomorrow. **Written by Doug Powers Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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Jon Corzine Receives Third Subpoena From Congress; Update: Corzine Expected to Plead the Fifth
Channel 4 (UK) : You would expect the Foreign Office mandarins to be prepared for every eventuality – but here’s a doomsday scenario which might just happen. British embassies are now taking active steps to prepare for the possibility of the euro collapsing – something that’s no longer as inconceivable as it once was. The Foreign Office is preparing contingency plans to help expats from the Costa del Sol and the Algarve who could be stranded without cash – or caught up in riots and civil unrest.
**Written by Doug Powers The Republicans don’t trust the White House’s review of the Energy Department’s “green” loan program to get to the bottom of the Solyndra debacle? Hard to believe. USA Today : A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee investigating the collapse of Solyndra voted today to authorize the panel to subpoena the White House to produce internal correspondence on its dealings with the bankrupt solar panel manufacturer. The committee issued a broad call for all internal documents–including correspondence, memorandums and drafts–and authorizes the panel’s chairman to issue to subpoenas to White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley and Bruce Reed, Vice President Biden’s chief of staff. “This is not a fishing expedition,” said Cliff Stearns, the chairman of the Energy’s oversight subcommittee. “We want answers and so do the American taxpayers. It’s unfortunate that it has come to this, but we do not have faith in the White House overtures” to produce relevant documents. The White House has handed over 85,000 documents on the Department of Energy loan guarantee program since the committee launched its investigation. Days before the collapse, an investment banking firm that had already made a million dollars analyzing options for Solyndra advised the White House to bail the company out, presumably so they could continue making money analyzing options for Solyndra. But the full bailout recommendation was rejected. By then it was too late because they’d already auctioned off the whistling robots . Then there’s this: Solyndra’s former CEO received nearly a half million dollars in severance . What was your cut? **Written by Doug Powers Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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House Panel to Subpoena All White House Correspondence Regarding Solyndra
ContributorNetwork – COMMENTARY | If one doubts what a monstrosity the health care reform law, also known as Obamacare, is, one can look no further than to the collapse of a key component of the law. The CLASS Act, a long term disability insurance plan, has collapsed.
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The Collapse of CLASS Shows the Folly of Obamacare
(ContributorNetwork)
The cover story, by Leon Aron, at the June/July Foreign Policy , ” Everything You Think You Know About the Collapse of the Soviet Union Is Wrong .” I think that title is over-promising, actually. The key explanatory innovation is the role of moral ideas in overthrowing the old order. Aron writes, for example : LIKE VIRTUALLY ALL modern revolutions, the latest Russian one was started by a hesitant liberalization “from above” — and its rationale extended well beyond the necessity to correct the economy or make the international environment more benign. The core of Gorbachev’s enterprise was undeniably idealistic: He wanted to build a more moral Soviet Union. For though economic betterment was their banner, there is little doubt that Gorbachev and his supporters first set out to right moral, rather than economic, wrongs. Most of what they said publicly in the early days of perestroika now seems no more than an expression of their anguish over the spiritual decline and corrosive effects of the Stalinist past. It was the beginning of a desperate search for answers to the big questions with which every great revolution starts: What is a good, dignified life? What constitutes a just social and economic order? What is a decent and legitimate state? What should such a state’s relationship with civil society be? “A new moral atmosphere is taking shape in the country,” Gorbachev told the Central Committee at the January 1987 meeting where he declared glasnost — openness — and democratization to be the foundation of his perestroika, or restructuring, of Soviet society. “A reappraisal of values and their creative rethinking is under way.” Later, recalling his feeling that “we couldn’t go on like that any longer, and we had to change life radically, break away from the past malpractices,” he called it his “moral position.” At least from an ideational perspective, the argument is familiar. I’m reminded of the edited volume from Richard Ned Lebow and Thomas Risse-Kappen, International Relations Theory and the End of the Cold War , published in 1995 . Ideas are contrasted with material interests as a mobilizing factor in historical change. So Leon’s argument builds on themes that have been common in international relations literature for some time. Aron’s book on this is forthcoming, and looks interesting: Roads to the Temple: Truth, Memory, Ideas, and Ideals in the Making of the Russian Revolution, 1987-1991 .
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Moral Revolution and the Collapse of the Soviet Union
The unrest in Egypt is widely seen as wildfire ignited by the collapse of the Tunisian government, and the ouster of its President, who actually took office several years after the embattled Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak.
The Daily Beast – He’s one of the greatest economists of our time and tamed inflation as Fed chief, but when Paul Volcker resigns as Obama’s adviser, he’ll be forever tied to a watered-down financial reform that won’t prevent another collapse.
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Volcker Rule Is a Sad End to a Brilliant Career
(The Daily Beast)
At The Blaze, ” Update: New Time-Lapse Video Shows Snow Collapse of Minneapolis Metrodome ,” and CNN, ” Heavy snow wreaks havoc in Midwest; Metrodome roof collapses .” And even TMZ, ” Metrodome Roof Collapses — Crazy Video!!! ” Via Twitter .
