Otherwise Maladroit

20 October 2002

20 October 2002

Why did not Communism work in Russia and China? Because the intellectual elite was outnumbered. For Communism to actually work a large number of the population must be highly educated and leading active intellectual lives. Why? Because Communism demands a superior level of discipline and comprehension to allow the sacrifices needed for such an utopia to work. The drawback to this however is that Communism only appeals to concentrated groups of intensely intellectual and highly moralistic individuals who are more adept in being visionaries than actual builders. A society ripe for the takeover of a Communist regime requires an apathetic government controlled by an infantile elite, a network of ambitious men in the middle class, and a huge population of susceptible third class. Is there now a threat of a Communist takeover in the country? My opinion is no. Why? Because only two of the three requisites are present: the indifferent clique and 70% or more of the population under the poverty line. However we lack the carriers. The new generation of middle class intellectuals is not angry enough. Activism has only become a college experience for most, but not a lifetime vocation. But the government should beware because only one of the elements is missing. And that missing element is fickle and unpredictable, because this class contains most of the youth.

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What is the use of too much heart when you do not have muscle? In time that heart becomes resentful and black.

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In a documentary about eighties music (on Dancing in the Street, Channel V when it still existed) I came across the best description of punk, as elucidated by a female guitarist in a featured group (New Order, I think). She described it as that final counter-thrust to meet the hips of your lover at the precipice of an orgasm. Primordial, primal and pleasurable.

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The words of faith are evasive, because if these were clear then truth would banish faith.

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Our bodies are forged at the anvil of hardship; without, we are merely forms with no purpose.

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The one who denied that the Church is a political animal was their political strategist.

posted by Otherwise Maladroit @ 5:33 PM