Surviving Capitalism (Not) : If Stalin Equals “Communism, Bad,” Why Doesn’t’ “Hitler Equals Capitalism, Bad?”

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

If Stalin Equals “Communism, Bad,” Why Doesn’t’ “Hitler Equals Capitalism, Bad?”

Click here to access article by Steven Jonas from The Greanville Post.

Jonas exposes the inconsistent logic of US indoctrination agencies which have hammered into the heads of its citizens that communism/socialism has been thoroughly discredited by the Soviet experience. They continue to uphold capitalism, aka "free markets", as the only solution to bring about peace and prosperity in the world. Of course, such a view has been thoroughly discredited by history since WWII which has seen unending smaller wars, economic collapse, and climate destabilization. Nevertheless, the slick capitalist indoctrination agencies have largely succeeded in blurring this history.

...with the victory of the allies, including the Soviet Union, there was no reaction to fascism of the “look where capitalism leads [or can lead].” Rather the United States, unscathed physically by the war, moved immediately to re-secure capitalism in Western Europe. The Marshall Plan was designed specifically to restore Western Europe’s industrial base, especially that of Germany (the western part only, of course), which had been so heavily damaged during the war. No Marshall Plan aid for the Soviet Union, of course. On the contrary, announced by Winston Churchill’s famous “Iron Curtain” speech...the “75 Years War Against the Soviet Union” was resumed almost immediately.