I have been saying this quite some time. There is no such thing as communism. What people think is communism is merely an Aristocrat/Monarchy type of government that pretends to represent the working class.
Here is but the latest bit of proof.
Children of the Revolution
State-controlled media portray China's leaders as living by the austere Communist values they publicly espouse. But as scions of the political aristocracy carve out lucrative roles in business and embrace the trappings of wealth, their increasingly high profile is raising uncomfortable questions for a party that justifies its monopoly on power by pointing to its origins as a movement of workers and peasants.
And here is another example of the same phenomena:
America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution
Never has there been so little diversity within America's upper crust. Always, in America as elsewhere, some people have been wealthier and more powerful than others. But until our own time America's upper crust was a mixture of people who had gained prominence in a variety of ways, who drew their money and status from different sources and were not predictably of one mind on any given matter. The Boston Brahmins, the New York financiers, the land barons of California, Texas, and Florida, the industrialists of Pittsburgh, the Southern aristocracy, and the hardscrabble politicians who made it big in Chicago or Memphis had little contact with one another. Few had much contact with government, and "bureaucrat" was a dirty word for all. So was "social engineering." Nor had the schools and universities that formed yesterday's upper crust imposed a single orthodoxy about the origins of man, about American history, and about how America should be governed. All that has changed.
Today's ruling class, from Boston to San Diego, was formed by an educational system that exposed them to the same ideas and gave them remarkably uniform guidance, as well as tastes and habits. These amount to a social canon of judgments about good and evil, complete with secular sacred history, sins (against minorities and the environment), and saints. Using the right words and avoiding the wrong ones when referring to such matters -- speaking the "in" language -- serves as a badge of identity. Regardless of what business or profession they are in, their road up included government channels and government money because, as government has grown, its boundary with the rest of American life has become indistinct. Many began their careers in government and leveraged their way into the private sector. Some, e.g., Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, never held a non-government job. Hence whether formally in government, out of it, or halfway, America's ruling class speaks the language and has the tastes, habits, and tools of bureaucrats. It rules uneasily over the majority of Americans not oriented to government.
Sorry, but China is not communistic anymore. It has not been in years. It is a capitalistic dictatorship, with an elite leading the poor masses in an absolutistic fashion. Definitely no sharing of wealth going on there anymore, not that I can see it anyway...
Skipjack wrote:Sorry, but China is not communistic anymore. It has not been in years. It is a capitalistic dictatorship, with an elite leading the poor masses in an absolutistic fashion. Definitely no sharing of wealth going on there anymore, not that I can see it anyway...
When it WAS communistic, it was in fact, Monarchy/Aristocracy. The rulers were the nobility, and the peasants were the same peasants under Dictator Mao as they were under the Emperor. They were just poorer (and more likely to die) under Mao.
What China is becoming is Fascistic, Same as we.
‘What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.’
— Lord Melbourne —
North Korean Communist dynasty goes into its third generation
The world's only hereditary communist dynasty is going into its third generation, as the secretive dictatorship in Pyongyang announced to its people Sunday that the "Dear Leader" died the day before, allegedly of a heart attack brought on by overwork. Power is passing to the youngest of his three sons, Kim Jong-un, now known as the "Great Successor," formerly labeled by the regime as the "Brilliant Comrade."
I am reminded of the Russian joke in which Brezhnev invites this mother to stay at his luxurious dacha. As he proudly gives her the tour, her face shows worry. When he finally asks her what she thinks of it, she says, "But Leonid, what if the communists come back?"
Diogenes wrote:North Korean Communist dynasty goes into its third generation
The world's only hereditary communist dynasty is going into its third generation, as the secretive dictatorship in Pyongyang announced to its people Sunday that the "Dear Leader" died the day before, allegedly of a heart attack brought on by overwork. Power is passing to the youngest of his three sons, Kim Jong-un, now known as the "Great Successor," formerly labeled by the regime as the "Brilliant Comrade."
It is the flat eyes the worry me. This child is going to be pressured into acts to "confirm" his legitamacy (of which he really has none). The best assessment I can forward is the the exisitng power structure (elites) are seeking to sustain themselves. Whether or not this sustainment will include the NOOB remains to be seen. That in itself adds to the pressures he is facing to remain relevant and even to some extent alive. There is alos a large pressure on the elites to perpetuate the mythical "regime" as they believe (and somewhat rightly so for now) that the populace sees the "regime" as a religion. So while there are some pressures to toos him out with the trash, there are others to retain and control him as a useful idiot. However, the longer term risk in that is that he may not remain an idiot. He also has family members placed around him to help maintain his "post". His sister and brother in law are at the top of the foodchain as well. It is a complex setup that will either play out simply, or get real messy real fast. In the end, the North Koreans (elites) can not sustain as is. Some of them know it, some do not. the people still do not. The center of gravity for NK is the people. Until someone takes a truly active effort to accellerate the awareness of the people to the rest of the world, and alternative reality, this (NK) will mudde along while the populace slowly dies off. No matter how you look at things, an attempt to sustain will lead to collapse. It is not an if, it is a when. The elites are all in, and have been for a while, by design of the regime. They believe it is a right to be elite, and also some of the brighter ones understand that to fail as a elite means death or worse. The really bright ones know that it will all fail down the road, but are trying to pad themselves for the crash.
The really frightening part is that if the military elite says "go" for whatever reason, the military will try to "go", and a number of them fanatically so. The entire nation exists in a surreal reality that we can not truly comprehend from the outside. As I said above, the best approach to the entire thing is to engage the people of NK, not the elites. Show them that they really are getting the dirty end of the stick, and that they do not have to.
NK is not going to end well no matter what. But it will end at some point. I give it less than ten years, with a good chance of sooner given the sudden placement of Little Fat Man as the new god.
On the news this morning they showed Il "lying in state."
This is really a generic question. Why is it they describe a dead politician as "lying in state", when, in fact, it is probably the first time since they got into politics that they are not lying about anything?
What I see in that picture is an honest politician!
A friend of mine reminds us, on this solemn occasion, of a famous quote from Mark Twain:
"I did not attend his funeral; but I wrote a nice letter saying I approved of it."
others to retain and control him as a useful idiot. However, the longer term risk in that is that he may not remain an idiot. (...)
Absolutely, that'd be just.. typical.
The center of gravity for NK is the people. Until someone takes a truly active effort to accellerate the awareness of the people to the rest of the world, and alternative reality, this (NK) will mudde along while the populace slowly dies off.
Maybe the current generations that never lived in USSR times can learn from this present day demonstration.
Tom Ligon wrote:I am reminded of the Russian joke in which Brezhnev invites this mother to stay at his luxurious dacha. As he proudly gives her the tour, her face shows worry. When he finally asks her what she thinks of it, she says, "But Leonid, what if the communists come back?"
‘What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.’
— Lord Melbourne —
