Truth and Beauty,
REH
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2003 4:07
PM
I
have often wondered the same thing and wondered too what would have been the
history of the USSR if the western powers had been at least neutral toward the
experiment. As with Cuba, if the west (read US) had gone along with this
change then who knows.....but then why would the US do such a thing and put
market capitalism as risk.
arthur
I've often wondered what would have happened to the US
in the first 80 years of its existance if it had the kind of cold war waged
by the European powers against us at that time. America too
had a genocide that effected more than Stalin's purge or Hitler's camps
combined. The slaves were estimated at 60 million removed from Africa
and the Native American population prior to contact was 33 million in North
America. The US American Indian population in 1900 was under a
million some say as low as 250,000 but that is not counting those of us who
were in the "Hiding Bushes." We also had our own
Apartheid until 1954. I can remember that. I can
remember performing a Lakota song in Carnegie in 1978 when we were first
given the right to practice our religion without going to jail.
I did it after an evening of European and American Art
songs. The audience was frankly "stunned" as was
noted by the newpaper critic. I watched Jan Peerce today on
PBS sang a yiddish spiritual for a Russian audience and their response was
exactly the same. First stunned silence and then frenzied
applause.
I think history will eventually place both America and
the Russian experiment in its proper context, whatever that is, but I
believe the current descriptions are too close to us not to serve our
individual interests in a very conflicted situation. I have met
too many Russian immigres who were children of peasants and who were trained
by the Soviet State in very technological jobs that would have been buried
down on the farm in the Aristo-cratic system and seem to be on their way
back to the farm in the current neo-Capitalist one. Their only
chance was to escape to the US where they are not particularly
happy. They don't like the jobs, the culture and certainly not
the education system. They have started an excellent music
school in Brooklyn for their own children and one of my daughter's playmates
was performing the Mozart A major piano concerto in the third
grade. She was not a strange or possessed child, just the
daughter of musicians trained in the Soviet Union who were now struggling to
get by here. Admittedly they were able to do so here better than
in the chaos in the Ukraine and in Russia. One grandparent
was a voice teacher in the Kiev Conservatory. To
musicians, music is the country and you go wherever you can to be
home. But that doesn't mean that they enjoyed it
here. They didn't.
Truth is the substance of art and beauty is the ideal
that it promises if we are but willing to have the discipline to
learn. But it begins with telling the truth.
Ray Evans Harrell
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2003 3:28
PM
Most would say that the USSR was not Communist, aiming toward it
perhaps but a brand of socialism.
I don't know how best to characterize it.
Russia was a basket case after the revolution (even before).
What it tried to do under Stalin and even subsequently was to
industrialize very rapidly, which meant, via the state planning
system, a very heavy emphasis on producers goods,
especially those needed for heavy industry, and
little emphasis on consumers goods. Because of both paranoia
and legitimate fears, there were huge expenditures on the military,
meaning even less for the ordinary householder. By about the
1980s, the system was simply not able to meet all of the demands it had
placed on itself, and ordinary Russians had become tired of being asked
to wait just a little longer for the workers' paradise to arrive.
It then began to collapse of its own weight.
Via the planning system, the state decided both
production and distribution, and I find it very difficult to distinguish
between the two in the case of the USSR.
Ed
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, December 13, 2003 11:11
AM
> Yes
but wasn't it supposed to be distribution that did in the
Communists? > I'm just a poor artist but I do remember that
discussion from you economists > talking about our superior
distribution. I'm confused. Educate me >
please. > > REH > > > ----- Original
Message ----- > From: "Harry Pollard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Saturday, December 13, 2003 2:00
AM > Subject: RE: [Futurework] http://www.glaesernemanufaktur.de/ > > > > Arthur, > > >
> Wouldn't you know it? > > > > You almost repeated
- word for word - what Henry George said in > > 1878. >
> > > Great minds think alike! > > > >
It's the reason why Classical Political Economy is described as >
> "The Science that deals with the Nature, the Production, and
the > > Distribution of Wealth. > > > > That
"Distribution" bit is the essence of Political Economy. > >
Would that modern economists would start thinking about why the >
> distribution is so unfair, instead of devising ways to patch
the > > system by taking from the rich and giving to the
poor. > > > > Harry > > > >
******************************************** > > Henry George
School of Social Science > > of Los Angeles > > Box
655 Tujunga CA 91042 > > Tel: 818
352-4141 -- Fax: 818 353-2242 > > http://haledward.home.comcast.net > >
******************************************** > > >
> > > -----Original Message----- > > From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Wednesday, December
10, 2003 5:26 PM > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; >
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >
> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: RE: [Futurework] http://www.glaesernemanufaktur.de/ > > > > We have "solved" the production
problem but can't seem to deal > > with the issue of
distribution. > > > > Arthur > > > >
-----Original Message----- > > From: Harry Pollard
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Wednesday,
December 10, 2003 5:15 PM > > To: 'Brad McCormick, Ed.D.'; 'Ed
Weick' > > Cc: 'futurework' > > Subject: RE:
[Futurework] http://www.glaesernemanufaktur.de/ > > > > > > Brad, >
> > > We are discussing these problems in a society where
the power to > > produce has reached unbelievable proportions
(After many have > > been thrown out of work, the industries
they left behind are > > actually producing more. Productivity
hasn't fallen even though > > there are far fewer workers
employed.) > > > > Why these "problems"? >
> > > Harry > > > > > >
--- > > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > >
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > > Version: 6.0.548 / Virus Database: 341 -
Release Date: 12/5/2003 > > > > > >
_______________________________________________ > > Futurework
mailing list > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework > >
|