While finishing a brief vacation, I'm also finishing one of the best books I've read in a long time, published two years ago; I'm sorry I missed it until now. The book won the 2006 Harry S. Truman book award, and the author won the National Humanities Medal in 2005. It's not just a lucid explanation of the era I was born into [sorry, Winston], but it's a stark reminder that, lest we lose our perspective, the consequences of politics extend far beyond economics.
The book is The Cold War, by John Lewis Gaddis.
Here's an excerpt:
...Marxism and its successors, Leninism, Stalinism, and Maoism, cannot be judged on their [dismal] economic performance alone. The human costs were far more horrendous. These ideologies, when put into practice, may well have brought about the premature deaths, during the 20th century, of almost 100 million people. The number who survived but whose lives were stunted by these ideas and the repression they justified is beyond estimation. There can be few examples in history in which greater misery resulted from better intentions. The sign that went up on an East German factory wall just after the Berlin Wall came down was entirely appropriate—if long overdue: "To the workers of the world: I am sorry." There hardly needed to be a signature.
Something to keep in mind as we contemplate which systems and approaches work best not just for the poor, but also for us "workers of the world." Here's a Che Guevara t-shirt that makes the point.
It may have been Thomas Jefferson who once made the quote -- and I'll paraphrase:
The tree of liberty must from time to time be watered with the blood of tyrants.
How fortunate we are that we didn't have to blow up half the planet to achieve a generation of freedom!
The "Cold War" ended without a shot being fired -- anyone who believes in classical liberalism should relish the thought.
Posted by: Phil | 08 May 2007 at 11:29
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure."
http://www.bartleby.com/73/1065.html
Posted by: none | 08 May 2007 at 19:18
"""The "Cold War" ended without a shot being fired"""
Are we living on the same planet? Because here on Earth the cold war killed plenty in Vietnam, Korea, and Afghanistan.
I guess Asians and brown people don't count in your book.
Posted by: mike | 10 May 2007 at 00:24
Just had to come back and give you an update on my favorite candidate's presidential bid
Since the debate on May 3, Ron Paul:
Handily won two post-debate polls posted by event sponsor MSNBC
Placed a close third (18%) in a post-debate poll on the conservative Drudge Report
Won an ABCNews.com online debate poll with 84%
Won a C-SPAN online GOP candidate poll with 69%
Became the third most-mentioned person in the blogosphere, beating out Paris Hilton, according to the reputable Technorati.com
Produced a YouTube.com video that was ranked the 8th most popular overall video, and the most-viewed political video
Was featured, by popular demand, on the front of Digg.com
Generated so many bulletin posts on MySpace.com that the site owner News Corp. blocked all additional posts about Dr. Paul
Became a "most searched" term on Google and Yahoo!
Saw a quadrupling of daily visitors to http://www.RonPaul2008.com
Number of YouTube Subscribers for Each Candidate
Romney: 1,877
Paul: 1,784
Giuliani: 1,268
McCain: 1,175
Hunter: 179
Huckabee: 141
Tancredo: 131
Brownback: 61
Gilmore: 21
Posted by: Dr. Ron Paul | 11 May 2007 at 01:53
Mike,
Perhaps your knowledge of wars and history are different than, um maybe, the rest of the planet.
Cold War - Arms race between the former USSR and the U.S. No shot was fired between the 2 countries. Kruschev's shoe pounding cry that our grandchildren would grow up under communism resulted in the dismantling of the USSR. We won, they lost, no shot was fired.
Posted by: Bob | 12 May 2007 at 18:28
BTW, intellectual property probably killed and is still killing more people than communism.
Posted by: Laurent GUERBY | 13 May 2007 at 12:38