Notice the orchestrated attack on the West for it's own conflict: "We should beware these inequalities, he writes, and also beware the West’s sometimes “messianic” desire to export its “system — sometimes by force — across the globe.” Communism may be all but dead, and let’s tramp the dirt down, but the injustices and resentments that brought it to life are thriving almost everywhere."
on the contrary it is the West that gives us the idea of goal oriented thought that allows evolving ideas. It is the West that allows us terms of thinking that we can improve things. The better part of Marxism was it's naive faith that the people could better themselves... even though it was expressed in Darwinian terms of inevitability as opposed to a will to improve and do good. It is upsetting to see the idea of Messianisic thought abused. It's like this guy didn't really learn the lesson of history. There is still within Messianic ideas the need for proactivism. While it is true that those with faith are optimists and think things will work out for the "good", on the other hand it still takes a community and cooperation to get there. Perhaps this is the part of Communism that failed more then anything. The idea that things will just fall into place is a 19th century construct of Social Darwinism and it is flawed.
"Mr. Priestland gives far more credit, in terms of bringing down the Soviet Union, to Mr. Gorbachev than to President Ronald Reagan. Communist rule imploded, he writes, “not from pressure from without but as a result of an internal nonviolent revolution, staged by the elite of the Communist party itself.”"
I did however agree with this guys idea that Islam is the new "LEFT" that is totalitarian, but that is kind of obvious at this point. Glad the guy isn't completely oblivious.
Excerpt: ‘Red Flag’ (pdf)
Musée d’Histoire Contemporaine, Paris“On Your Horse, Proletarian!” (1919) from the Russian civil war.
AKG-ImagesAn 1898 German cartoon shows the traditional political parties drowning.
