Dates are popular with historians and parade-planners.  And although today, November 7th, is a celebrated political holiday in Russia, the actual events of the "October Revolution" spanned many years.  Today is sort of the climax of the revolution, the actual day when the provincial government palace in the Russian capital fell to revolutionaries.

 
90 years later, the world would do well to remember the authoritarian state that was born out of class war-fare rhetoric and a promise to abolish tyranny.
 
Its also wise for Americans to realize that socialism isn't a completely foreign philosophy in our own elections, or that socialism in itself is any better or worse than other types of totalitarianism.

The left loves to accuse their political enemies of "fascism" and likewise the right uses "socialism" as if it was a bad word (and I'm guilty of this myself from time to time.)  From what I've read, there are no more disputed and misunderstood terms in the political dictionary.  Essentially, either one requires a complete merger of state and corporate power.  The difference between them seems to be which unrealistic promises the politicians use to ratchet up their complete control of the populace.

See, if a government sells its citizens out, ruins the economy, and invades personal rights while promising things like protection from terrorists, immigrants, and other various foreigners - if war is popular - if hard work and moral living is considered a social virtue - we would probably call it fascism.

But if a government sells its citizens out, ruins the economy, and invades personal rights while promising things like protection from poverty, disease, and other unavoidable consequences of human existance -  if war is only acceptable in terms of exporting & protecting human rights - if caring for the sick, elderly, and poor are social virtues - we would probably call it socialism or communism.

For every problem that exists or doesn't exist, I know you can find ten politicians who are willing to sell you a solution.  From what I've seen, none of those solutions are really going to work until you have some way of holding that politician accountable.

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Guest   | Unregistered | 2007-11-12 05:37:54 Those silly Russians called themselves Socialists and you believe them, but the called themselves democratic and you don't. They were no more one than the other. Actual Socialism is like Scandinavia, and to a lesser extant the rest of Western Europe. A look at any reliable data set shows that by any measure of health and happiness they are doing among the best in the World, all in bottom ten for child mortality while places like Cuba, and Croatia come from way worse to pass us by. Republicans are far more Totalitarian than Scandinavians. Reply | Quote

underground     | Unregistered | 2007-11-13 07:41:57 In American federal politics I see precious little difference between the Democrats and the Republicans, oustide of marketing strategies. The Democrats' leadership voted to start the war, voted to pass the Patriot Act, and they've proposed several regressive taxes since taking Congress earlier in the year. With the right hand they promise and ensure more war, less privacy, and less rights. With the left hand, they keep us distracted and offer a "different way" that is essentially the "same way" with more promises of financial assistance - so long as your taxes are paying for it. Reply | Quote

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.