30th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

...and Margaret Thatcher.

 

Some will and some will pretend it never happened.



Like the ceremonial services at the Gulag memorials in post-Soviet Russia, this is precisely why it is important to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall.

 

He missed a significant part of history ...

 

A truly great man, of letters and of action, but despised as a traitor by Western leftists. Jean Francois-Revel, if you remember was a warrior of words, very brave for speaking out at the time.

 

The quantity may be the debatable but I think the importance of the fundamental principles behind free enterprise are indisputable. Economic freedom - including private property rights - and individual freedom are inseparable.

This is one of the lessons to be learned from the fall of the Berlin Wall and the demise of the Communist Bloc.

 

As were many, including the CIA and FBI. The pro Soviet and anti American propaganda of the day created a false picture of what was really happening. Calling them the Two Superpowers was really misleading.

 

Without a word of a lie that could be identical to mine, even the triangular shape, but mine has a large pink stripe. Great stuff, thanks.

 

This is truly sad as well but he is being remembered. https://www.dw.com/en/remembering-last-berlin-wall-victim-chris-gueffroy/a-47365057

 

Conversely, Solzhenitsyn openly expressed a blistering contempt for the Western "progressives" he considered complicit in the oppression of his own people. Furthermore, he seemed particularly contemptuous of British "progressives".

To belabor the point, I'll repost the content of one of his talks that was aired on the BBC and created quite a bit of controversy on the Left:

The decline of contemporary thought has been hastened by the misty phantom of socialism. Socialism has created the illusion of quenching people's thirst for justice; Socialism has lulled their conscience into thinking that the steamroller that is about to flatten them is a blessing in disguise, a salvation, And socialism, more than anything else, has caused public hypocrisy to thrive; it has enabled Europe to ignore the annihilation of 66 million people on its very borders.

Revel was a lion, and thank you for bringing him up, Fred.

In the opening post I mentioned that one of the questions that academics, historians, journalists and others have been asking since the fall of the Berlin Wall is "how has socialism managed to survive in the post-Soviet era?". As you may have suspected I had Revel's last book in mind when I wrote that:



Here's the introductory teaser on the book jacket:

Here is a tasty paradox: How did the Leftist legions regroup after history delivered its fatal blow to the Soviet system? What prompted these elites to believe they could extract lessons from history that blatantly contradict what history plainly says? Simple, argues Jean-Francois Revel: the Left retreated to the impregnable fortress of the utopian ideal. After all, socialism incarnate was always vulnerable to criticism. Utopia, on the other hand, lies by definition beyond reproach. Since there is no longer a vast and flailing embodiment of of their vision, Utopia's haughty champions can again rage boundlessly.[/QUOTE]

 

And a tailor shop with one awful suit on a hangar in the window, cranes on taller buildings to suggest work in progress but all idle and non functional, rubble looking to be left over from WWII and an elderly woman sitting in a chair in the Pergamon museum. motionless and just staring into space. I smiled hello but she continued staring as though she was looking up from a lake bottom. Millions died but many millions had their short time we have on this earth ruined, never knowing the freedoms we've long taken for granted. Man's inhumanity to man writ large.

 

Brilliant! Thanks so much.

 

Nevertheless, people will make another attempt at socialism/communism. They'll try it again and again. And if it fails again, they will again say: "this was no socialism!"

 

Horrifying. I was barely 4 years older than Chris Gueffroy when he got cut down in 1989.

it's hard to believe the nightmarish reality people lived in back then. How we've become blind to it over the course of only three decades never ceases to amaze and disturb me.

 

In fact communes are legal all over the western world, though usually fail. They really need a police state in order to survive any length of time. Some people are fine with that, for others.

 

By the American Abolitionist and liberal activist Wendell Phillips on January 28, 1852.

Speaking to members of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society that day, Phillips said:

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few. The manna of popular liberty must be gathered each day or it is rotten. The living sap of today outgrows the dead rind of yesterday. The hand entrusted with power becomes, either from human depravity or esprit de corps, the necessary enemy of the people. Only by continued oversight can the democrat in office be prevented from hardening into a despot; only by unintermitted agitation can a people be sufficiently awake to principle not to let liberty be smothered in material prosperity.”

 

Excellent thread. Thanks to everyone for sharing.

I was a teenager. I remember seeing a chunk of the wall at my mom’s friend’s house. I was already “interested” in communism from reading about Chernobyl and Afghanistan in magazines and newspapers. I also remember the story of the hot air balloon escape from east Germany. That got the wheels turning in my young head. What could cause families to risk their lives like that?

My dad encouraged me to take advantage of an opportunity to spend 2 weeks in Moscow and Odessa in 1991. He was not a fan of communism and I think he was wise enough to know the experience I’d have there would inoculate me against it. He was right.

The profound effect that had on me as a teenager makes me wonder how much more of an impact the wall coming down had on you guys old enough to understand it all in real time.

 

It's an irrational faith that refuses to die.

A big part of the problem is that results don't matter. All that matters are the good intentions. That's how socialists can kill 100 million people without it bothering their consciences and forcing them to reconsider their views, and it's one of the primary explanations for the survival of socialism in the post-Soviet era.

 

I don't mind saying, 557, that tears were coming down my face as we were bused through East Berlin, And despite what we could all plainly see, slums would be too kind, the guide was droning on of all the holidays, summers houses, and the gender equality everyone enjoyed. Luckily I have it all on VHS, since transferred to DVD. It may be unfair but since then I have no respect for leftists whatsoever, though would wish them no personal harm. I've had no reason to ever change my mind.

 

Great stuff.

I've got another excerpt from Revel's Last Exit to Utopia for you. It's a bit lengthy but I think you'll find it worth the time and effort. It also goes a long way towards explaining why he thought socialism managed to survive following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union:

 

I was in the South China Sea intercepting Russian TU-16's and TU-95's ( Badgers and Bears) that were attempting thwart our naval Operations. Funny how times have changed. Now, it's the Chinese that are the main issue in that area as they build islands and try to claim that sea for themselves and to stop traffic through international waters.

 

Thought I had all Revel's books but missed one. Thanks again.

This line (Communism differs from direct totalitarianisms in that it has recourse to ideological dissimulation) reminded me of something read years ago about structure. Was lucky enough to find it one the Internet. Found it interesting.

"The Jewish pattern of history, past and future, is such as to make a powerful appeal to the oppressed and unfortunate at all times. St. Augustine adapted this pattern to Christianity, Marx to Socialism. To understand Marx psychologically, one should use the following dictionary:

Yahweh = Dialectial Materialism

The Messiah = Marx

The Elect = The Proletariat

The Church = The Communist Party

The Second Coming = The Revolution

Hell = Punishment of the Capitalists

The Millennium = The Communist Commonwealth"

https://samirchopra.com/2012/02/18/russell-on-marx-as-excessively-practical-messiah-and-schoolman/

 

This excerpt is from what, I believe. to be the greatest book ever written on America and that it should be taught in all schools. Democracy In America by Alexis de Tocqueville

"Not surprisingly, a culture that leaves men free to judge for themselves in religion and politics nurtures independent self-reliance from childhood on. Even in the schoolyard, American children make up their own rules and punish infractions themselves. As adults, they never think of waiting for government to solve everyday problems. If a road gets blocked, they organize themselves to fix it. If they want to celebrate something, they spontaneously join together to make the festivities as fun and grand as possible. Spontaneous nongovernmental associations spring up for furthering “public security, commerce and industry, morality and religion,” Tocqueville marvels, pointing to the temperance movement and the founding of seminaries and hospitals as just a few examples. “There is nothing the human will despairs of achieving through the free action of the collective power of individuals.” Free and collaborative: that’s the mainspring of American mores".

https://www.city-journal.org/html/end-democracy-america-14332.html

 

That would be interesting to see. Thank God for technology. Now, all of those old tapes can be digitized and kept forever.

 

It should be noted that the protests began in early Sept. 1989 in Leipzig in the St. Nicholas church. The initial protest were peace prayers and all of them were non-violent. This was a major reason why Honecker could not attack the protesters, because the optics would have looked really bad to attack church goers.

At the time, I was still living in Germany. it was a magical time. Freedom prevailed. The brave protesters definitely deserve the lion share of the credit, but it wouldn't have been possible without Gorbachov seeing the change coming, and the support of the US. I went back to Leipzig for a conference two decades later, it is now a bustling city with great living quality, totally different from the depressing police state under the Honecker regime.